The Associated Press reported yesterday that a group representing Chrysler's retired salaried workers is asking the judge overseeing Chrysler's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings (Hon. Arthur Gonzales, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York) to appoint an official committee of retirees, citing concerns about the future of their benefits. The National Chrysler Retirement Organization, which represents more than 16,000 Chrysler retirees and surviving spouses, claims in its motion that it has been left out of negotiations with the automaker. The group claims that under Chrysler's current reorganization plan, the retirement benefits of salaried retirees would not transfer to the new company that's expected to be created by the sale of most of Chrysler's assets to Italy's Fiat Group SpA.   Retirement benefits for the automaker's unionized workers, however, are expected to be protected under the new company.  The group filed its motion pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 1114(d).

     Chrysler filed an objection to the motion.  Among other things, the objection asserts: "[u]pon closer inspection, the Motion appears more of a backdoor attack to the proposed sale to New CarCo Acquisition LLC ('New Chrysler'), by attempting to bootstrap the requirements of section 1114 to a sale under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code. However, neither the text of section 1114 nor case law interpreting same supports such a conclusion."  Judge Gonzales is scheduled to hear the motion today in New York.

-Drew Broaddus