Government Report: GM Pressured to Favor Presidents Union Allies in Auto Bailout

Government Report: GM Pressured to Favor Presidents Union Allies in Auto Bailout

Topics: General Motors, Delphi

Government Report: GM Pressured to Favor Presidents Union Allies in Auto Bailout

Congressman John Boehner
September 12, 2013

Congressman Boehner (OH-08), Congressman Mike Turner (OH-10), and Republicans in Congress have been working for years to get to the bottom of the Obama administrations role in the decision to protect the pensions of the union employees during the 2009 auto bailout while non-union salaried retirees lost much or all of theirs.

Delphi salaried retirees, including hundreds in the Dayton area, saw their pensions cut by 30 to 70 percent during the auto bailout, says the Dayton Daily News. But while their pensions were getting cut, GM which once owned Delphi chose to bolster the pension payments of union-represented Delphi retirees

Why the different treatment for unions The House Oversight & Government Reform Committee examined that question in a hearing this week. The committee looked at a new report from the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), Christy Romero. According to the Dayton Daily News, the report says:

General Motors leaders felt pressured to make whole the pensions of union-represented Delphi retirees as the federal government guided the automaker out of bankruptcy four years ago, an investigator told a U.S. House committee Wednesday.

As Congressman Turner pointed out, the SIGTARP report completely discredits the administrations statement that they did not influence GM and were not involved in GMs or the PBGCs decision making.

The SIGTARP report and the statements made by witnesses at yesterdays hearing show that the Obama administration did in fact play a role in picking winners and losers in the auto bailout. So now it must finally answer the question: why did it give different treatment to union-represented retirees than it gave to non-union, salaried retirees

The House remains committed to holding the administration accountable for its actions in the Delphi case. As Boehner reiterated in a recent column, its about economic freedom, jobs, and the very real implications of an out-of-control government picking winners and losers and we arent about to let up.