Former Youngstown mayor Jay Williams came back to his hometown Friday morning to meet with representatives of the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association.
Williams, who is the current Executive Director of the Federal Office of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers, also known as the nation's Car Czar, listened to the retirees' concerns in a closed meeting at the Voinovich Center downtown. He spoke to the media afterward.
The group has been fighting for the return of half of its pension and health benefits since Delphi emerged from bankruptcy back in 2009.
"I'm not here simply just because I'm the former mayor or because, you know, I want to be back here, all of which is true. I'm here because I was dispatched by the administration. I want to make that very clear. I'm here because the administration said it's appropriate and deemed it appropriate and dispatched me to be here because there is concern," Williams said.
Williams couldn't talk about specifics of the meeting, but said he plans to take everything he heard on Friday back to Washington, D.C.
"Obviously I'm not in a position to discuss specifics, but I can tell you that there is a committee on behalf of the president, on behalf of (U.S. Labor) Secretary (Hilda) Solis, to make sure that we are coordinating and finding and tapping into federal resources that will help affected communities overcome the challenges that we're facing," Williams said. "There's some very straightforward requests that I didn't deem as unreasonable. But I'm going to go back and talk to the appropriate parties, and then we agreed to make sure that we keep the lines of communication going, again between my office and this group, to try to move these things forward as appropriate."
As for the Delphi Retirees Association federal lawsuit, it's in the discovery phase right now. Chairman Bruce Gump said if litigation continues, a trial could begin as early as this summer.
"It's important to us to solve this problem now, and it should be important to the administration. I think the fact that they've sent a representative here to talk to us says that they've gotten that message, that it is important and we very much appreciate the opportunity to finally after three years have an opportunity to have a member of the administration here and give him the information that we had," Gump said.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, applauded the meeting, which they helped arrange.
"As Jay knows from his years spent in the Mahoning Valley, thousands of retirees in Ohio dedicated their careers to working for Delphi and General Motors. Many of these retirees are continuing to experience economic hardship following the collapse of their former employer," Brown said. "Even though Jay has moved onto a new role in the Department of Labor, he hasn't forgotten about Ohio and its auto workers. I encourage Jay to do whatever possible to assist these retirees, who have yet to receive the pensions they earned and deserve."
"Former Delphi union and salaried retirees continue to struggle with the fallout from a policy that wiped away many of the financial promises Delphi made to its workforce," Ryan said. "The treatment of these former Delphi employees was unjust when it was proposed, and it continues to be unjust today. I know executive director Williams will take the concerns of these Delphi retirees back to Washington and continue to work toward a resolution that fairly restores some of the promises Delphi made to its workforce in better times. Jay has always been a friend to the working men and women of the Mahoning Valley and Ohio, so I am certain he will do everything he can to help."
Last Congress, Brown and Ryan led a bipartisan group of nine senators and 24 representatives from Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, and New York in a letter to the President calling for the federal government to restore fairness for Delphi retirees and minimize the economic effect of the pension loss on their communities. Brown also invited a representative of the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP) in October 2009. In December 2009, Brown and Ryan testified on behalf of the Delphi retirees before the House Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee (HELP).
Last Congress, Brown also cosponsored legislation that would have curbed abuses that deny employees and retirees of their pensions when businesses collapse. The Protecting Employees and Retirees in Business Bankruptcies Act would make several changes to Chapter 11 bankruptcy law, emphasizing worker and retiree interests when companies file for bankruptcy.
