General Motors National
Retiree Association
Over
The Hill Car People
Established 2003
Chrysler LLC salaried retirees scored a victory Thursday when the automaker agreed to include their benefits and pensions in the liabilities of the new company, an alliance of Chrysler and Fiat SpA that is expected to emerge from bankruptcy as early as this summer.
That is good news for about 19,000 nonunion retirees and their families who feared their benefits would be terminated as part of Chrysler's Chapter 11 filing. The original plan was not to transfer the obligations to the new company, but to leave them among other bad assets remaining in bankruptcy.
The National Chrysler Retirement Organization (NCRO) hired the law firm of Stahl Cowen Crowley Addis LLC of Chicago to fight back and a motion was filed to have the bankruptcy court appoint a non-union retiree committee with a voice in the proceedings.
Chrysler filed an objection, saying there was no need for a committee since the benefits had not yet been terminated.
The two sides were to appear before bankruptcy judge Arthur Gonzalez today.
But Chrysler's last-minute agreement to continue to assume responsibility for the benefits made it a moot point.
As a point of law, the motion to form a retiree committee was denied.
"We look forward to working with Chrysler as it adjusts the wording on retiree obligations in its sales documents to include salaried retirees," said NCRO President Chuck Austin in a statement.
Judge Gonzalez did grant the retirees the right to come back before the court "on three days" notice if Chrysler goes back on its word," said NCRO attorney Trent Cornell.
Chrysler pays about $7.3 million a month to provide the benefits.
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