Now that the dust is settling on the GM bankruptcy, you may ask what GMRA will do to help GM retirees in the future. Let me start be saying there is a lot of work to do both for GM retirees and retirees across the nation.

As we are all now painfully aware, an employer can modify or cancel most benefits for which we worked so many years. Legislation must be enacted to prevent such radical elimination of benefits without first providing some form of alternate protection to retirees. Also, even though our pensions are a bit safer because they are protected by ERISA regulations, there is still substantial opportunity for diversion of pension funds. Again, legislation must be enacted to protect our pension funds from misuse.

We, as GM retirees, are not alone in this struggle. There are many corporations across America that have eliminated benefits and turned pension funds over to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC). This is exactly what has happened to the Delphi salaried retirees. Many retiree associations, including GMRA, have banded together as members of the National Retiree Legislative Network (NRLN), working on issues of common interest. As you know, one of our V.P's, Vic Poleni, has been working for some time on a task team developing proposals for bankruptcy reform and protection of retiree benefits.

The product of their efforts will be presented next week in Washington, D.C. during the NRLN sponsored “Fly-In”. In addition to lobbying for health care provisions designed to protect retirees, association leadership and members will meet with elected officials on these pension concerns, presenting our issues and proposals and encouraging them to keep retiree interests in the forefront of any legislative effort. We will also meet with PBGC representatives to raise their awareness of issues that could affect retirees through the misuse of pension funds. Following these meetings, I will update you on who we met with and how our concerns and proposed solutions were received.