The appeals court observed that its case law has repeatedly recognized that the Central States Trust Agreement gives deference to the Trustees’ reasonable interpretations of plan documents.

In a dispute between an employer and a multiemployer pension plan, in which the pension plan believed that the employer was trying to manipulate its bill for withdrawal liability, the Seventh Circuit affirmed a district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the multiemployer plan that it had authority to expel a local union and it did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in doing so. Moreover, the appeals court affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the pension plan’s counterclaim seeking declaratory judgment that the Trustees’ termination of Penske was effective on December 25, 2021, since the counterclaim must be arbitrated before it can proceed in federal court (Penske Truck Leasing, LP v. Central States Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Plan, Nos. 25-1738 and 25-1872 (7th Cir. May 29, 2026)).

Withdrawal liability. When a company withdraws from a multiemployer pension plan, the plan remains financially liable to the employees with vested pension rights. Yet the plan “no longer can look to the employer to contribute additional funds to cover these obligations.” To make up for the shortfall, the plan would raise costs for everyone else.

The Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA) shifted more of the burden of unfunded or underfunded benefits to a withdrawing...

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