During the GM bankruptcy proceedings, GM announced there would be additional salaried staff reductions within the GM ranks. Many GMRA members have worried that the financial resources for additional staff reductions would come from GM's salaried pension program, which was 95% funded at the end of 2008. In response to these concerns, we contacted the new GM to ask if pension funds would be used for this purpose. Following is a portion of the response we received from the Director of GM Pension Plans: "It is important to state that the severance payments which will be made as a result of the separation of both classified salaried employees and executive salaried employees are being paid out of operating cash and not the qualified Salaried Retirement Program (SRP). Any Executive Retirement Plan (ERP) payments are also paid out of operating cash and not from the SRP."

Protection of pensions for all GM retirees remains GMRA's highest priority, and we were pleased to receive this message from the new GM. As part of our ongoing efforts to protect retiree benefits, GMRA will be working with the National Retiree Legislative Network (NRLN) to request the Pension Protection Act of 2006 be revised to limit further the allowable uses of pension funds for non-pension purposes. We will continue to give GMRA members updates on this important item from our legislative agenda.