Chrysler salaried retirees hire law firm, seek voice in bankruptcy

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, May 4 - Chrysler LLC's salaried retirees have hired law firm Stahl Cowen Crowley Addis LLC to represent their interests in the company's bankruptcy case, and the firm plans to ask the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to appoint an official retiree committee, according to a news release.

The law firm was hired specifically by the National Chrysler Retirement Organization.

According to the release, Section 1114 of the bankruptcy code, under which the committee appointment motion will be made, was enacted by Congress in the wake of several high-profile bankruptcies where courts had allowed companies to summarily cut the health care benefits of thousands of retirees and their dependents.

"There are nearly 16,000 salaried retirees of Chrysler and their families who are dependent on the health care and pension benefits they earned," NCRO president Chuck Austin said in the release. "Salaried retirees at Chrysler are caught between a rock and a hard place.

"On one hand, in bankruptcy Chrysler will seek to cut off every liability that it can. On the other, the United Auto Worker-represented retirees have protection and government support that salaried retirees don't have.

"Our goal is to assure balanced and even treatment for all retirees."

The NCRO said Chrysler salaried retirees were the only group among retirees or employees to lose life insurance last year, and, in January 2007, salaried retirees were asked to share premium increases according to ability to pay.

On average, the organization said Chrysler salaried employees paid about one-third of their total health care bill in 2009, about three times the rate paid by UAW employees.

"We don't want the UAW package; we just want to be treated fairly," Austin said in the release.

Attorney Trent Cornell said the appointment of an official committee would help standardize treatment of all retirees, but is critical to those who are vulnerable.

In some cases, especially for high-risk elderly retirees, losing or compromising health care could have serious consequences, Cornell said in the release.

Chrysler, an Auburn Hills, Mich.-based automotive company, filed for bankruptcy on April 30. Its Chapter 11 case number is 09-50002.

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