The NAM and 4 other organizations filed an amicus brief 4/9 urging all the judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to review a ruling by three of their members that threatens to impose huge health care liabilities on manufacturers. At issue is whether a union contract implies lifetime health care for retirees if the contract does not specify that health benefits are provided for the length of the contract only. We argue that in the non-union context, courts do not presume that retiree health care benefits are vested for life without a clear intent by the employer to do so, and there is no reason to apply a different presumption in the union context.
The Sixth Circuit is the only federal appeals court to cling to the so-called Yard-Man inference that retiree health benefits vest. This conflicts with the goal of federal labor policy to provide some degree of uniformity around the country, and encourages lawsuits in the Sixth Circuit.
The petition for rehearing was denied on June 2, 2008.