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Caterpillar Retirees File Class Action Lawsuit to Protect Promised Healthcare Benefits
March 31, 2006
Nashville, TN -- Class counsel announced that retirees of Caterpillar, Inc., have filed a class action lawsuit against the company to preserve the healthcare benefits promised them under collective bargaining agreements. The complaint, entitled Winnett, et al. v. Caterpillar, Inc., was filed earlier this week in U.S. District Court in Nashville, Tennessee, by two Caterpillar retirees and a surviving wife of a deceased retiree.
The complaint charges that Caterpillar’s labor contracts and benefit plans provided retiree’s health care coverage "continued for his or her lifetime at no cost." The plaintiffs request the court certify a class of former Caterpillar retirees and surviving spouses who retired before the adoption of a March 1998 contract.
“Workers at Caterpillar made the company into the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment and were assured free lifetime healthcare coverage,” commented plaintiffs’ counsel Elizabeth Alexander at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP. “Caterpillar should not charge them for any portion of their health care coverage through deductions from their pension benefits.”
In October 2004, Caterpillar began charging retirees monthly premium costs ranging from $134 to $280 per month for health care benefits. The lawsuit seeks to end these charges and restore the plaintiffs and similarly situated retirees to the position they would have been but for Caterpillar’s contractual violations.
The plaintiffs are represented by Michael Mulder, Shona Glink and Jamie Franklin of Meties, Mulder, Mollica and Glink of Chicago, Illinois, and Kathryn Barnett, Elizabeth Alexander, and Mark Chalos of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, of Nashville, Tennessee.
Further Information
Members of the media can obtain a copy of the amended complaint by contacting Brandan de Coteau at Lieff Cabraser by e-mail to bdecoteau@lchb.com.
Source | Contact
Elizabeth Alexander
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP
(615) 313-9000
ealexander@lchb.com
Michael Mulder
Meties, Mulder, Mollica & Glink
(312) 263-0272
mmmulder@mmbmlaw.com