Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 18, 1992 TAG: 9203180256
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ABINGDON LENGTH: Medium
U.S. District Court Judge Glen Williams rejected arguments by the Bituminous Coal Operators that the cost of such an injunction would end coordinated collective bargaining in the coalfields and kill a bill now before Congress that would rescue the retirees' benefits.
The judge's order, promised within 10 days, would take the form of a preliminary injunction.
The coal operators have said if they are forced to increase contributions they will suffer competitively and that an injunction threatens the future of their association. Union supporters said failure to bolster the funds would lead to wildcat strikes nationwide.
"I'm happy for our clients; they're not going to lose their health benefits," said Mark Lawson, one of the attorneys representing the retirees.
Until Tuesday, Lawson had kept secret the identity of the beneficiaries represented in the suit, which Williams granted class-action status. However, Lawson's law partner, James Elliott, called 83-year-old Lena Pearl McGlothlin of Buchanan County as a witness and identified her as one of his clients.
McGlothlin, whose late husband helped organize the UMW at Pittston Co. mines in Virginia, testified that she agreed to join the suit because she was afraid of losing her UMW health card.
McGlothlin, who was helped to the witness stand by a daughter, told the court she suffers from congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer. She said she sees a doctor once a month, nurses twice a week and pays $200 a month for medicine. Living on Social Security, a small miner's pension and black-lung benefits earned by her husband, she depends on the health funds to pay her medical bills.
The trustees for the 1950 and 1974 Benefit Funds, which provide health care to 120,000 union retirees and widows, revealed in January that they intended to notify the beneficiaries this month that they planned to suspend benefits in April because the funds were essentially broke. They were paying out more than the coal companies were contributing.
About 7,000 Virginians received nearly $30 million in the benefits in 1991.
McGlothlin and at least one other trust-fund beneficiary brought the suit in Williams' court, seeking to keep the funds from sending out the notices and stopping benefits, and forcing the coal operators to pay more into the trust funds to keep them operating.
Williams granted the retirees a temporary restraining order Feb. 26, which is where the matter stands until he issues his preliminary injunction within 10 days.
Roanoke lawyer William Poff, who represented the operators' association during the two-day hearing, indicated that the coal operators might appeal once Williams issues his injunction.
Williams gave attorneys for the association, the UMW and the trust funds 10 days to agree to an increase in the operators' contribution to the funds that would keep them solvent through June. That is when the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., is to hear a lawsuit aimed at permanently increasing the coal operators' payments into the health funds.
Poff had suggested during his argument that an increase in contributions into the two health funds would carry them through to that trial.
Williams also gave the lawyers 10 days to argue whether it is proper for a Bristol law firm to represent retirees in the class-action suit before his court.
Lawyers for the firm of White, Elliott & Bundy, which brought the suit on behalf of the retirees, acknowledged in court Tuesday that their payment is guaranteed by Smith, Heenan & Althen, a Washington law firm that represents non-union coal operators.
At least one of the companies paying the bill belongs to the Private Benefits Alliance, a coalition of non-union coal companies and electric utilities lobbying to kill congressional legislation that would rescue the faltering health funds.
Lawyers for both the UMW and the union coal operators' association have asserted that the non-union companies are paying for the suit to kill West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller's legislation that would save the health benefits. The legislation is part of a Senate tax package that passed on Friday and awaits action by a conference committee.
Williams brushed off Poff's assertion that the injunction would kill the legislation.
"If Congress is so wimpish and weak that it is swayed by a lowly district court's judgment which may give temporary relief to a few elderly and widows, and fails to act on a long-term solution to the problem, then in the court's view, Congress never intended to search for a solution," Williams said.
If Congress can bail out Chrysler and the savings and loan industry, surely it can help the retirees, he said.
by CNB