01-1501 Sprague v. Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund, et al.

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“UPS, IBT, and the Fund intended for the documents comprising the abatement plan to be controlling as to the behavior of UPS and the Fund during the months of August through December 1997. The trustees, therefore, did not fail to act in accordance with the governing documents and did not breach their fiduciary duty under ERISA sec. 404(a)(1)(D). The Fund’s Plan does state that ‘[a] participant shall earn contributory service credit for any employment with a contributing employer required to make employer contributions on his behalf according to a collective bargaining agreement.’ However, the governing documents must be read together in a way that reconciles provisions of a bargaining agreement. Diehl v. Twin Disc, Inc., 102 F.3d 301, 306 (7th Cir. 1996). The abatement plan provided a way for the Fund to remain financially sound by keeping UPS as a member who was obligated, but for five months, to contribute to the Fund through 2002. It is part of the overall collective bargaining agreement; UPS’s employees, then, were entitled to credit so long as UPS was contributing according to the overall abatement agreement. It was, and no violation occurred.”

Affirmed.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Moran J., Flaum, J.