by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB
Roanoke Times Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: THURSDAY, February 27, 1992 TAG: 9202270062 SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO SOURCE: Associated Press DATELINE: ABINGDON LENGTH: Short
JUDGE BARS END TO MINERS' BENEFITS
A federal judge on Wednesday barred administrators of the United Mine Workers union's two troubled trust funds from suspending health care benefits to 120,000 beneficiaries.U.S. District Judge Glenn Williams issued the temporary restraining order in response to a class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday on behalf of some retirees.
James Elliott, an attorney representing the retirees, said trust fund administrators were planning to send notifications next month that the benefits would be terminated in April.
Williams set a March 4 hearing on a motion for an injunction to prevent that.
The two funds have a $100 million deficit because of a drop in the number of contributing companies to the Bituminous Coal Operators Association, which helped create the funds in the 1940s.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has proposed legislation that would impose an industry-wide tax to bail out the funds.
Elliott said he sought the injunction pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed in Washington by union trustees. That lawsuit seeks to make BCOA members pay into the funds under a guarantee clause in the contract.
Defendants in the lawsuit are the members of the benefit plans' board of trustees, including chairman Joseph P. Connors. The board is separate from the UMW.
The administrative offices in Washington closed for the day before reaction from the defendants could be obtained.