Romney-Ryan: Private equity pirates profiting off the misfortune of Delphi autoworkers

http://uaw.org/articles/romney-ryan-private-equity-pirates-profiting-misfortune-delphi-autoworkers





DETROIT -- Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney are the last people who should be championing the cause of Delphi salaried workers whose pensions were terminated during the General Motors and Delphi bankruptcies. Despite opposing the auto rescue, Romney personally profited off the deal that cut the pensions of workers at Delphi Automotive, an automotive parts division spun off from GM in 1999.

A recent report in The Nation detailed Romney's investment in the hedge fund that swooped in to buy - for pennies on the dollar - controlling interest in Delphi during its bankruptcy. The Romney campaign has not denied that the Romney family made at least $15 million and as much as $115 million off its investment in the hedge fund that controlled Delphi after its bankruptcy.

Romney's investor group leveraged more than $12 billion in rescue funds from the U.S. Treasury Department through its major customer, GM, by threatening to withhold components critical to the assembly of GM cars. Steven Rattner, former counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration during the auto restructuring, likened it to "extortion demands by the Barbary pirates."

"It was Mitt Romney's major campaign contributor -- not the Obama administration -- who forced the termination of all of the Delphi pension plans for both union and salaried workers," said UAW President Bob King. "GM is paying the portion of the pension of UAW members that is not covered by the PBGC [Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.], because it is honoring an agreement in place since 1999, when Delphi was spun off from GM. We have always supported the salaried Delphi workers receiving their full pensions, and it is unfortunate that Mitt Romney, after dumping their pensions, is further exploiting these workers for his personal gain. Delphi's major new owners made enough profit in just one year to have fully funded these salaried workers' pensions and still made $400 million."

FULL story at link.