By PETER HUSSMANN
After nearly two years of legal wrangling, a federal judge this week defined the class members included in Whirlpool's lawsuit against former Maytag workers who had their retiree medical benefits changed, ordered that the UAW and its lawyers act as class counsel for the retirees and defined the issues before the court moving forward.
Judge James Gritzner on Tuesday filed a 30-page order that grants Whirlpool's request for certification of class as the United Auto Workers union, its Newton Local 997 and all persons who:
- are or were employee participants, dependents or participants, or spouses of participants in the Maytag employee benefit plans that provided for retiree medical benefits;
- who worked at the Newton, Iowa, plants and as to whom the Union had been the participants' collective bargaining representative at the time of and prior to their retirement from Maytag and/or Whirlpool;
- who retired from Maytag and/or Whirlpool before July 31, 2008, or, in the case of dependents or surviving spouses, who received benefits by virtue of retirees from Maytag and/or Whirlpool on or before July 31, 2008, and;
- who are living and thus affected by (Whirlpool's) modification to retiree medical benefits.
The class identified in the order consists of approximately 3,314 people living in 25 states and Puerto Rico, though about 94 percent live in Iowa.
Judge Gritzner also ordered that the UAW and its lawyers, Robert Seltzer and Mark Hedberg, act as class representative for the Maytag retirees in the action brought by Whirlpool in July 2008. He rejected the Union's arguments against representation of the class based on lack of consent from retirees and potential conflicts of interest with retirees over past contract negotiation practices.
Finally, the judge defined the issues to be determined in the class action lawsuit:
- whether the retiree medical benefits schedule provided for in the July 5, 2004, collective bargaining agreement entered into by the Company and the Union expired on July 31, 2008;
- whether the Company has the unilateral right to enroll class members in the Whirlpool Corporation Group Benefit Plan, and;
- whether the Company is entitled to costs and attorney's fees.
The class action lawsuit is currently scheduled for trial in federal court in Des Moines beginning Dec. 6.
You can read the order below.
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