584
Opinion of the Court
Funds would, after just one more year of service, acquire vested rights to pension benefits pursuant to the 10-year vesting requirement of the Southern Funds—even though the Southern Funds had received only one year of employer contributions for that employee. See id., at 61, n. 4. The Southern Funds' assumption of these liabilities, however, did not alter the obligations of the Greater Funds, which were not parties to the collective-bargaining agreements: They remained liable to the departing employees for all vested benefits. See id., at 61, and n. 5, 65; 935 F. 2d, at 530-531.
To help cover the Southern Funds' liabilities and in general to help finance the change from the Greater Funds to the Southern Funds, the respondent employers—joined by several of their employees and the trustees of the Southern Funds—brought this action to compel petitioners, the Greater Funds and the Greater Funds' trustees, to transfer an appropriate fractional share of the Greater Funds' assets to the Southern Funds. They asserted right to relief under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U. S. C. § 1001 et seq. (1988 ed. and Supp. III), and under § 302 of the LMRA; only the latter claim is at issue here.
The relevant portions of § 302 are set forth in the margin.1 To describe respondents' claim, it is necessary to sketch
1 Section 302, 29 U. S. C. § 186 (1988 ed. and Supp. III), provides in part: "(a) . . . It shall be unlawful for any employer or association of employers . . . to pay, lend, or deliver . . . any money or other thing of value—
"(1) to any representative of any of his employees who are employed in an industry affecting commerce; or
"(2) to any labor organization, or any officer or employee thereof, which represents, seeks to represent, or would admit to membership, any of the employees of such employer . . . ;
. . . . . "(b) . . . (1) It shall be unlawful for any person to request, demand, receive, or accept, or agree to receive or accept, any payment, loan, or
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