For more than 15 years now, the lives and livelihoods of 20,000 hard-working former salaried employees of the Delphi Corp. have been harshly and unfairly compromised.

Those employees, including more than 5,000 from Ohio and the Mahoning Valley, have been victimized by a chain of events during the Great Recession and its aftermath that left them out in the cold.

Their predicament began in 2005 when car parts manufacturer Delphi, with a strong Mahoning Valley presence, faced bankruptcy. The company was acquired by General Motors, which also faced financial hardship during that time. As part of GM’s government-subsidized bailout in 2009, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation took trusteeship of Delphi employees’ pensions at the direction of the Obama administration.

Unionized employees had their pensions fully funded. But the pensions promised those salaried workers were frozen temporarily before being cut dramatically. Management-level retirees lost up to 70% of their promised retirement benefits, according to the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association.

Reports and analysts have estimated that the Delphi salaried retirees will lose some $440 million in pension benefits. That equals about $100 million in the Mahoning Valley alone.

Over the past decade and a half, members of the DSRA have fought vigorously to have those pensions rightfully restored. They’ve fought with the PBGC. They’ve fought with the courts, up to and including the U.S. Supreme Court. They’ve fought with three presidential administrations. And they’ve fought in the halls of Congress.

Despite several spurts of promise, the Delphi retirees came out on the losing end of all of those fights.

Today, a new but promising fight has been launched in the U.S. House of Representatives. Last week, U.S. Reps. Dave Joyce, R-Bainbridge, and Michael Rulli, R-Salem, joined original co-sponsors led by Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, in reintroducing the Susan Muffley Act of 2025 in Congress.

With passage of that bill, named after the late wife of a Delphi retiree, salaried retirees would receive a lump-sum payment covering the pension benefits they should have received over the past 15 years, with 6% interest added. The legislation also would fully restore their pensions and ensure retirees receive the payments originally promised.

“Since coming to Congress, I have heard from countless constituents who unfairly lost the pensions they planned to survive on during retirement,” said Joyce, who represents all of Trumbull County. “Delphi salaried retirees deserve better than to be left without their hard-earned financial security.”

Guy Coviello, CEO and president of the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, highlighted the specific local impact of this miscarriage of justice.

“The Mahoning Valley is home to many of the thousands of Delphi salaried retirees whose pensions were unfairly ripped away from them. Restoring their pensions through the Susan Muffley Act, first off, is the right thing to do and long overdue.

“In fact, terminating the pensions was wrong when it happened. Secondly, the payments would be a tremendous financial boost for the families who have gone without them for more than 15 years, as well as pumping millions of dollars into our region’s economy.”

Joyce and Coviello are correct. That’s why we urge co-sponsors and supporters of the salaried Delphi retirees to lobby exhaustively for speedy and overwhelming passage of the Susan Muffley Act. That same legislation did win House approval in the last session of Congress but died when recalcitrant senators shamefully failed to act to make the 5,000 retirees whole.

This year, however, hope springs eternal. For one thing, support in the House is solidly bipartisan with nearly equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats signing on as supporters.

In addition, President Donald Trump, during his first administration, pledged support for the plight of the salaried retirees. We call on him to renew that support with vigor this winter and urge his legions of diehard followers in both chambers of Congress to act swiftly to fast track the legislation, the final and only hope for the victimized retirees.

Sadly, over the past 15 years, many of those affected by the ruthless meat axing of their benefits have died. For those who continue the fight, what should have been their golden years of retirement have become severely tarnished.

Reintroduction of the Susan Muffley Act could very well be the last best hope to right the wrongs of the PBGC. In the name of fairness for those who dedicated their most productive years to what once was one of the world’s leading auto parts suppliers, this time Congress must not let them down.