Since 2009, former Delphi workers have been fighting to get their pensions back.
Some 20,000 salaried retirees — almost half of them in Ohio — had those pensions cut by as much as 70% when GM filed for bankruptcy amid the Great Recession.
Over the years, little progress has been made on restoring those pensions, but the movement gained new ground this past week.
New movement in long effort
On Oct. 3, President Donald Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Vandalia for Ohio Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Jon Husted.
During his speech, Trump touched on a long list of national issues but also weighed in on the plight of local Delphi retirees.
"These people got terrible — they worked their whole lives," he said. "They got treated — many of them have passed away, but they got treated so badly. But I'm working with Jon (Husted) and Bernie (Moreno) and Vivek (Ramaswamy) and everybody. We're going to get Delphi taken care of. We're gonna get your benefits back. What they did to you is incredible."
That comment came after Trump met with U.S. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Dayton) and several former Delphi employees before the rally.
The workers spoke to the president about their pension losses and how it damaged their lives.
Turner calls the meeting an important step forward.
"The job isn't done," Turner said. "We've got a lot of work yet to do, but it was really important to get them in front of the president so that he could hear their stories and it was a really important to get the president to that podium today and make that statement right here in this community where so many people were hurt."
Turner is a long time supporter of the Delphi workers efforts to restore their pensions. He and Husted are co-sponsors of two bills being reconciled between the house and Senate to restore the pensions.
Now with the president’s backing, former Delphi workers like Mike McCurdy, with the Delphi Salaried Retiree Association, say there’s hope this next push to restore those pensions will be successful.
"Seventeen years have been like a roller coaster, high hopes and then low hopes. Now we’re close and we really think this is the best time to get this thing fixed," McCurdy said.
