Published: June 23, 2009 11:41 pm      

Taking fight to the public

Delphi salaried retirees plan Detroit protest

For more than 42 years, Mike Phipps worked for General Motors and Delphi. But on Thursday, he will join other salaried retirees in a protest in Detroit.

The Delphi Salaried Retirees Association (DSRA) is organizing a protest outside GM’s world headquarters Thursday in an effort to bring public attention to the loss of their pension benefits.

DSRA organized a protest outside Delphi’s headquarters in Troy, Mich., on June 12. That attracted about 200 marchers.

DSRA wants the retired salaried employees to be treated on an equal basis with members of the United Auto Workers union. The Thursday protest will last from noon to 2:30 p.m.

Phipps and a group of other Indiana retirees are in the process of recruiting more people to make the trip to Detroit for the protest.

He worked with GM for 33 years and the last nine-plus for Delphi.

Phipps, 61, said he paid into the GM pension fund for 33 years. Now Delphi is trying to default his pension to a federal agency.

DSRA wants GM to take over the Delphi pensions.

Phipps said GM is retaining the UAW pension benefits while letting the salaried people go.

“I don’t know if I would ever buy a car from GM again,” he said.

Phipps said he could lose 20 percent of his $3,000 per month pension before taxes, and younger retirees will lose even more.

“I just lost my health care,” he said. “I took the $800 per month plan.

“It’s forced me to go back to work,” he said. Phipps was painting a house on Tuesday.

Phipps said he is hopeful a lot of people from Indiana will make the trip to Detroit.

“I feel like we’re losing something that is rightfully ours,” he said of his pension benefit. “We want to let people know what is taking place.”

Phipps will be carrying a sign detailing his years of employment with GM and Delphi.

The DSRA hired an Indianapolis law firm Friday to take legal action to prevent the Delphi pension from being defaulted to the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC).

“It’s all about keeping the pension,” Den Black, interim chairman of DSRA, said. “We believe the sensible thing is to take the Delphi salaried pensions back to General Motors.”

• Ken de la Bastide is the Kokomo Tribune enterprise editor. He can be reached at (765) 454-8580 or via e-mail at ken.delabastide@kokomotribune.com