Try as he might, Warren Mayor Doug Franklin can't reconcile what he wrote about Delphi salaried retirees in The Vindicator with what he wrote about them in the Tribune Chronicle. The only explanation is that the salaried retirees showed him the flaws in his Vindicator op-ed and his Tribune letter to the editor was a disguised recant.
In his July 29 point / counterpoint op-ed alongside one penned by Mahoning County Republican Party Chairman Mark Munroe, Franklin chastised presidential candidate Mitt Romney for politicizing the plight of Delphi salaried retirees. The general tone of the column was that the federal government properly reduced the salaried retirees' pensions by 30 percent to 70 percent while restoring the pensions of their unionized coworkers.
''Despite Romney's accusations, independent fact checkers and the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative agency, have reviewed the (Obama) administration's role in the auto rescue and found that the Delphi salaried pension plan was handled according to standard procedure and the law that applies to all corporate bankruptcies,'' Franklin wrote in The Vindicator.
''Now he's (Romney's) trying to exploit Delphi workers who lost part of their pensions when GM and Delphi were restructured, for his own political gain. Shameful.''
In his Aug. 12 Tribune Chronicle letter to the editor, Franklin implied that the federal government unfairly reduced Delphi salaried retirees' pensions.
''Politics or not, right is right and wrong is wrong,'' Franklin wrote in the Tribune Chronicle. ''What happened to the Delphi salaried retirees can be corrected. Those folks earned their pensions and need to be treated fairly. This is possible and realistic.
''... The salaried retirees seek only the same fair and equitable treatment received by their fellow hourly brethren. All the salaried retirees have ever asked for is fair and equitable treatment -nothing more and nothing less.''
Those comments are actually almost identical to what Munroe wrote and Franklin countered in July.
''... Unjust treatment of Delphi salaried retirees ... can be fixed ...'' Munroe wrote.
It's good that Franklin has changed his tune and now recognizes that Romney, even though he's doing it for political gain, is correct in trying to bring fairness to the Delphi salaried retirees' plight.