For some time, there has been a question about whether health benefits vest under a collective bargaining agreement. Since neither ERISA nor the National Labor Relations Act actually requires employers to provide health care benefits, employees typically bargain for health benefits that are then memorialized in a collective bargaining agreement.
Over the course of time, employers have trouble dealing with this potential obligation to provide retiree medical benefits, and as with most disputes, it ended up in litigation. Now the Supreme Court has ruled on the issue.
