Lynnette Kaiser v. Alcoa USA Corp.More than 3,000 pre-1993 Alcoa retirees sued when the company terminated their lifetime retiree healthcare benefits in 2021. On Friday the Seventh Circuit affirmed class certification, holding that the collective bargaining agreements' silence on benefit duration lets the retirees prove vesting through common evidence, but reversed the summary judgment they had won below, rejecting the district court's judicial-estoppel theory and returning the vesting question to the merits. (Blurb corrected 8/17: an earlier version mischaracterized the dispute as a pension-calculation challenge.)
Teamsters Local 639-Employers Health Trust Fund v. CouplinA health plan seeks to recover medical benefits it paid to a union member after he received a worker's compensation settlement for the same injury, and the court grants default judgment in the plan's favor.
Credit Union Sues TruStage Over Cybersecurity IncidentBessemer System Federal Credit Union sued TruStage Financial Group days after a cybersecurity incident forced TruStage, which serves 93% of U.S. credit unions, to shut down its systems and lock members out of 401(k) plans. The suit is an early test of whether institutional clients can hold a vendor liable for cybersecurity failures based on operational disruption alone, without proof that data was actually stolen.
Additional Details of CU's Suit Against TruStage Over System Shutdown Are Revealed in FilingA closer read of the Bessemer FCU filing against TruStage shows the complaint specifically alleges some credit unions temporarily lost employee access to 401(k) and other retirement accounts when TruStage shut its network down after the July 15 breach. A concrete look at how a recordkeeping vendor's outage becomes a retirement-plan access problem for plan sponsors.
Service Employees International Union National Industry Pension Fund v. Flagship Facility Services, Inc.Pension fund sues five janitorial service contractors for failing to pay required pension contributions and provide reporting information; court grants motion to dismiss but allows amended complaint.
Illinois Prevailing Wage Act Update: What Contractors Need to KnowEffective July 1, 2026, government contractors in Illinois who perform prevailing wage work must afford apprentices fringe benefits. These fringe benefits include pensions, vacations, and training, among other things
Eighth Circuit Affirms Exclusion of Undisclosed Damages Auditor and Summary Judgment for Employer in ERISA Delinquent-Contribution SuitUnion fund trustees and three affiliated local unions sued Barnhart Crane & Rigging Co. under ERISA and the Labor Management Relations Act.
Iron Workers STL Pension Fund v. Barnhart Crane & Rigging Co.Iron workers' unions sued a crane company for failing to make required contributions to union trust funds for work performed by its employees, but the court affirmed summary judgment against the unions because they lacked admissible evidence of damages after an expert witness was excluded.