Christina Hagan: Delphi Workers Waiting 11 Years for Tim Ryan to Restore Their Pensions

Delphi workers who had their pensions slashed during the Obama-Biden administration’s auto bailout say they have been waiting since 2009 for Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) to help restore their pensions with no luck, his Republican challenger says.

During a debate this week, Ryan’s challenger Christina Hagan, a young mother of three, blasted his failure to help 20,000 former Delphi workers — about 1,500 of whom live in Ohio’s 13th District with nearly 5,000 in the state — get their slashed pensions restored after Obama-Biden’s bailout of the auto industry.

“Delphi retirees have been waiting for 11 years for Congressman Tim Ryan to right the wrong of their lost salaries, of the Democrat leadership of President Obama picking winners and losers,” Hagan said.

“It’s time that we had a working class champion who went and fought for every single American,” Hagan continued. “And so Tim didn’t get that done in 11 years, I’m going to ask you for 11 months. Send me just one time. Send me one time and Delphi retirees will get their pensions restored if you send me to work alongside President Trump.”

In 2009, as part of the Obama-Biden administration’s taxpayer-funded bailout of General Motors (GM), the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) terminated the pension plans of about 20,0000 non-unionized Delphi workers. In some cases, workers had their pensions gutted by as much as 75 percent.

A federal report in 2013 detailed that the Delphi workers would likely have their pensions cut by an estimated $440 million. Meanwhile, GM topped off unionized Delphi workers’ pensions at a cost of about $1 billion.

Trump administration officials have confirmed that they are working on a plan to restore the pensions of the Delphi workers. The plans seemingly do not involve Ryan.

In 2012, federal documents unveiled how the Obama-Biden administration’s Treasury Department worked to gut the pensions of the Delphi workers. In other emails, PBGC officials indicated they had the green light from the Obama-Biden administration to slash the pensions.

Delphi, which has since split into Aptiv and Delphi Technologies, announced in 2006 that it would shutter 21 of its 29 plants in the United States — offshoring some 20,000 U.S. jobs to Mexico, China, and other foreign countries.

At the time, Delphi employed nearly 50,000 Americans who earned about $30 an hour on the assembly line. Now, workers in Mexico for the company earn about $1 an hour.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.