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Background
The parties have stipulated the administrative record. That
record is incorporated herein by this reference. Petitioner’s
address was in Alexandria, Virginia, when its petition was filed.
The Plan is a multiemployer defined benefit pension plan.
It was established in 1966 by the Sheet Metal Workers’
International Association (SMWIA) and by employers in the sheet
metal industry. Its sponsor and administrator is petitioner.
Petitioner, which comprises an equal number of employer and
employee trustees, has the sole authority to amend the Plan.
The Plan primarily provides retirement benefits to employees
in the sheet metal industry. Under the Plan, a participant is
entitled to receive a pension ascertained from the Plan’s terms
in effect when he or she separates from covered employment. The
amount of the pension is ascertained from the pension credit
accrued and the contribution rates at which the participant had
worked before separation.
In 1985, the SMWIA and the various employers who maintained
the Plan established a separate fund (COLA Fund) to provide for
cost of living adjustments (COLAs). The COLA Fund was not part
of the Plan, and the COLA Fund and the Plan had separate trusts,
were governed by separate plan documents, and had separate boards
of trustees. The COLA Fund’s plan document gave the trustees the
discretion to ascertain each year whether a COLA would be paid
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Last modified: May 25, 2011