Read the Battoni versus IBEW Local Union No. 102 Employee Pension Plan case and answer the following:
Problem 1. What were the legal issues in this case? What did the court decide?
Problem 2. Since the anti-cutback provisions of ERISA apply only to pensions and not welfare plans, what did changing the conditions under which retiree health care benefits were available run afoul of the anti-cutback rule?
Problem 3. In what sense were the accrued pension benefits of these employees reduced?
Problem 4. What should the benefit plan have done instead?