Chemtura Corp (fka CHMT)

[novachem]

Visteon judge won't halt benefits termination - What about Cemjq any thoughts?

Visteon, a top supplier to and a former subsidiary of Ford Motor Co., argued at a hearing last year that the retiree benefits were one of its largest liabilities and posed a significant obstacle to a successful reorganization. The company claimed that the retiree health and life insurance subsidies constituted a liability of about $310 million.

According to court records, benefits for retirees of the two Indiana plants alone cost the company more than $1 million a month.

But Vicki Jo Lady, a maintenance worker employed by Visteon for 33 years, said she and her husband both suffer from chronic illnesses and had to cut back on medication as they faced the loss of their employer-sponsored coverage. Lady, 58, began sobbing as she described the choice of paying for COBRA coverage and making house payments and buying groceries.

"They don't look at me as a person, they look at me as a piece of paper," she told Judge Christopher Sontchi before offering a tearful plea to Visteon officials.

"You're messing with people's lives here," she said. "... You're intelligent people; quit taking from people out of greed."

While acknowledging the decision to terminate benefits will cause hardship for some, Visteon attorney Steve McCormick said the appeal is bound to fail, and that further delays will only cause confusion for retirees exploring other health plans in advance of the April 1 benefits termination.

After a three-hour hearing, which included testimony from Connersville mayor Leonard Urban, Sontchi stood by his earlier ruling, in which he determined that the retirees did not have vested rights in the benefits and that Visteon had the ability to terminate them unilaterally.

"Needless to say, this is an extremely serious issue, the court is well cognizant of that," said a somber Sontchi. He agreed with Visteon that the retirees had not met the standards for him to halt implementation of his ruling, including the likelihood that their appeal would be successful.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Visteon-judge-wont-halt-apf-2504398344.html?x=0&.v=3