512
Opinion of OTMConnor, J.
and guaranteed health care benefits for life, but also because coal miners in their labor contracts have traded lower pensions over the years for better health care benefits." Coal Comm'n Report, Executive Summary vii, App. (CA1) 1324. The Commission agreed that "a statutory obligation to contribute to the plans should be imposed on current and former signatories to the [NBCWA]," but disagreed about "whether the entire [coal] industry should contribute to the resolution of the problem of orphan retirees." Id., at vii-viii, App. (CA1) 1324-1325. Therefore, the Commission proposed two alternative funding plans for Congress' consideration.
First, the Commission recommended that Congress establish a fund financed by an industrywide fee to provide health care to orphan retirees at the level of benefits they were entitled to receive at that fund's inception. To cover the cost of medical benefits for retirees from signatories to the 1978 or subsequent NBCWA's who remained in the coal business, the Commission proposed the creation of another fund financed by the retirees' most recent employers. Id., at 61, App. (CA1) 1390. The Commission also recommended that Congress codify the "evergreen" obligation of the 1978 and subsequent NBCWA's. Id., at 63, App. (CA1) 1392.
As an alternative to imposing industrywide liability, the Commission suggested that Congress spread the cost of retirees' health benefits across "a broadened base of current and past signatories to the contracts," apparently referring to the 1978 and subsequent NBCWA's. See id., at 58, 65, App. (CA1) 1387, 1394. Not all Commission members agreed, however, that it would be fair to assign such a burden to signatories of the 1978 agreement. Four Commissioners explained that "[i]ssues of elemental fairness are involved" in imposing obligations on "respectable operators who made decisions in the past to move to different locales, invest in different technology, or pursue their business with or without respect to union presence." Id., at 85, App. (CA1) 1414 (statement of Commissioners Michael J. Mahoney,
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