Posted on 01/26/2015 9:37:12 AM PST by cotton1706
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sided with a company that amended a collective bargaining agreement to force retirees to pay toward healthcare costs, throwing out a lower-court ruling that favored the former employees who objected to the change.
On a unanimous vote, the nine-member court handed a win to M&G Polymers USA, a subsidiary of Italy-based chemical company Mossi & Ghisolfi International, by sending the case back for further proceedings in the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Nearly 500 plaintiffs from Ohio who had worked at the M&G polyester plant in Apple Grove, West Virginia, sued in 2006 when the company said retirees would be required to contribute to their healthcare costs.
The plaintiffs, backed by the United Steelworkers union, said the collective bargaining agreement guaranteed them health benefits without requiring them to contribute.
The plaintiffs won in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Ohio following a bench trial, and the judge imposed an injunction reinstating the original benefits. In an August 2013 ruling, the 6th Circuit upheld the district court decision.
The question on which M&G sought high court review was whether the 6th Circuit correctly made a presumption in favor of the retirees after finding the contract did not clearly state the duration of the benefits.
Justice Clarence Thomas, writing on behalf of the court, said the appeals court had not used the correct legal analysis.
Thomas wrote that "when a contract is silent as to the duration of retiree benefits, a court may not infer that he parties intended those benefits to vest for life."
The case is M&G Polymers USA v. Tackett, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 13-1010.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Good Lord! Only in a union!!
I’m surprised by the unanimity of the decision. 9-0.
So if the contract said for the rest of their lives, they would have won this thing?
“I’m surprised by the unanimity of the decision. 9-0.”
My thought as well.
Not a Union fan, but if I agree to work for x, you better damn well give me x.
When I take my car to the repair shop and sign a work order to replace the engine for $3,000, can I, after the work is done, “adjust” the agreement to require the autoshop to pay more towards the parts?
Am I off base?
“Good Lord! Only in a union!!”
::::::::
“Legalized” extortion. It is an industry in America. Nice to see this decision.
Contracts between employees and employers mean nothing anymore.
Contract law is dead.
That being the case, I can petition a court to overturn ANY contract that I may have entered with ANY other individual or corporate entity, if it affects my bottom line.
And people wonder why anybody who makes anything are jumping the US ship and relocating to china.
At least the chinese can guarantee a contract, even if it involves slave labor and IP theft.
Employee loyalty in the US is virtually non-existent now, thanks to companies who weasel their way out of obligations that they promised.
WRONG, my friend. One of the ABSOLUTES of what we career military persons were "promised" (they were never called promises until the government started cutting everything they "promised"!!), was the FREE medical care for life. THAT was a major player for me and everyone I have ever spoken too in making the military a career.
During my time, the 1970-80-early 90s years, we were told that we got 1/2 of our base pay for life, at retirement, along with FREE medical AND DENTAL care FOR LIFE, use of all military base activities, PX, Commissary (the second major player in my humble opinion after medical), the gyms, movie theaters, bowling, gas stations (where the price is usually 20-30 cents lower than off base (and is here where I live right now 25 cents lower), golf course, etc. ALL these things were included that IF we would do our 20 or more years, THIS is what you got. Our pay in those days was always much lower than civilian life. The promises of what we were to get for our careers was the promises of those things to come to us after we retired.
If people don't like it that we could retire, at say 38 years old after a 20 year career and starting getting our pay and all these others items, well all I can say is tough, you could have done it also. But in 20+ years in the military, my family lived in 22 different homes, and my son was in 15 different schools because we had to move from say Ft Campbell, KY to Germany. I could not take my family immediately with me, so I pulled my son out of school at Campbell, left my family at our home in Alabama, went to Germany, got settled, brought them over and my son moved into his 3d school in that year. So, we went through that a lot.
Those types of thing are what we put up with, and our families put up with for the promises that the government made to us. Well, the FREE is gone from medical care. I pay out of my retired check every month a payment to cover my "insurance" by the military. No more dental. Unless you live near a base, no PX, Commissary, no other agencies. They closed Fort McClellan, AL near where I live and that left thousands of retired people, who retired here for the base, life style, etc, out in the cold. All gone. Too old to move. Taking away the promises, what could we do about it??? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! Too late to make a career change, you are already retired.
So, it ain't just unions doing this. It is the very government you work for. My nephew is an Alabama State Trooper. He is near his 25 year retired mark. He told me a couple of weeks ago that the State of Alabama had slashed the Trooper's retirement by EIGHTY PERCENT! 80%!!! He is 2 years from retirement. What does he do now with losing that which he had planned for 23 years for? It ain't just unions. NOBODY, NOBODY keeps their word any more.
Off base, no. But you have to remember that anymore any promise or law automatically comes with an expiration date.
As to how I feel about the reneging on the retirees health care costs, meh. The majority of us that work our butts off aren't guaranteed squat after we retire and we don't have the advantage of over inflated wages during our working years so we can save for the future.
Great decision!
Next time join a union which has some friggin clue about how to write a contract, guys!
Hugely. “I’ll repay you the second Tuesday of next week”. Their union promised this bag of goodies and failed at the contract table. If workers learn that their daddy isn’t their union or their government and they must plan for their own futures, people will learn to adjust their life style or face severe consequences in old age when they no longer have a voice, because they are no longer producing.
“So if the contract said for the rest of their lives, they would have won this thing?”
That’s the way I interpret it.
“Thomas wrote that “when a contract is silent as to the duration of retiree benefits, a court may not infer that he parties intended those benefits to vest for life.”
.
SCOTUS.
Yes, you’re off base. It’s ok if it’s happening to someone else.
It was a procedural issue, not an interpretation of the agreement issue.
Most people don’t understand that folks are making some up front concessions for increased benefits later at retirement. And they simply don’t care when the company, government, etc. simply says, “Yeah, that’s a shame” and pulls the rug out. Like I said, if it’s happening to somebody else, no problem.
I think you misunderstand the ruling. The contract did not specify how long the benefits would last. Thus, they were not guaranteed to last forever. The contract was upheld. The union needs better lawyers or negotiating teams to get life long benefits. Any company that agrees to such a thing is idiotic.
Retired.... I served 4 years in the USAF 1951-1955. I remember that RIF’s took place after the truce was signed in Korea and officers became enlisted ranks overnight.
I remember all the promises if you did your “20”.
Now we have the @zzwhole-in-chief sending pink slips to troops still in combat areas.
I wouldn’t recommend any young person to enlist in the military today.
Just how many years after someone retires, does he cease being a retiree?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.