Question: Cypress Mountain Coals Corporation entered into a collective bargaining agreement with the United Mine Workers of America under which the company agreed, among other things, to add disability pensions to its existing obligations under the union's multiemployer pension plan. The plan documents were silent as to whether or not an injured employee could qualify if his disability was not exclusively caused by a mining accident. A year after the collective agreement was consummated, Cypress employee Donald Miller was injured in a mine accident.
But when he applied for a disability pension, the company denied his application, contending that his disability was partly caused by preexisting conditions. The union sued Cypress for breach of the collective agreement and the pension plan. Which law should the court apply in determining this controversy, the NLRA or ERISA, or both? Is state workers' compensation law implicated here in any way? And what about the collective bargaining agreement's grievance/arbitration clause? See United Mine Workers of America v. Cypress Mountain Coals Corp. [171 BNA LRRM 2512 (6th Cir. 2002)].