Herald & Review (Illinois), "CAT Retirees Sue Over Health Benefits"

          Caterpillar Inc. retirees fed up with paying toward their health insurance are hoping a southern lawsuit might turn the clock back to the days of free medical care.
          The issue centers on legal action in Nashville, Tenn., that seeks to overturn Caterpillar's decision to impose health care premiums on employees who retired after Jan. 1, 1992. Workers who retired before this time do not have to pay anything toward their premiums, the once traditional arrangement at the company.
          The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two retired workers in Tennessee and the widow of a third worker, is seeking class action status. There are thought to be about 500 retirees in the Decatur area who would qualify to be included. One of them is retired electrician Roy Welch, who put in 30 years at the Decatur Caterpillar plant and retired in 1995; he's now wishing godspeed to the plaintiffs' attorneys.
          "I would be happy to help them anyway I could," said Welch, 67. "I always thought we had a good case for something like this."
          A Caterpillar spokeswoman said the company doesn't comment on pending lawsuits. The law firms involved, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein in Nashville and Meites, Mulder, Mollica and Glink in Chicago, aren't saying much, either, now that the legal process has begun winding its way through the Nashville Division of the United States District Court.
          But in a statement posted on the Web site of the Nashville law firm, attorney Elizabeth Alexander says: "Workers at Caterpillar made the company into the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment and were assured free lifetime health care coverage. Caterpillar should not charge them for any portion of their health care coverage through deductions from their pension benefits."