Cite as: 524 U. S. 498 (1998)
Breyer, J., dissenting
7-8, App. (CA1) 975-976; 1960 W&R Fund Annual Report 9, App. (CA1) 1018; 1961 W&R Fund Annual Report 16-17, App. (CA1) 1058-1059; 1962 W&R Fund Annual Report 15- 16, App. (CA1) 1090-1091; 1963 W&R Fund Annual Report 15-16, App. (CA1) 1123-1124; 1964 W&R Fund Annual Report 22-23, App. (CA1) 1160-1161; 1965 W&R Fund Annual Report 14, App. (CA1) 1187. See also Hearings on Health Benefits, at 36 (suggesting retirees eligible " 'from the inception of bargained benefits' ").
The only significant difference between the coverage provided before 1974 and after 1974 consists of greater generosity after 1974 with respect to widows, for the earlier 12-month limitation was repealed and health benefits extended to widows' remarriage or death. See 1974 NBCWA 105, App. (CA1) 758.
(4) In return for what the miners thought was an assurance (though not a contractual obligation) from management of continued pension and health care benefits, the Union agreed to accept mechanization of mining, a concession that meant significant layoffs and a smaller future work force. Coal Comm'n Report 11-14, App. (CA1) 1342-1345 (75% decline in employment from 1950 to 1969); Krajcinovic 4, 43-44; Seltzer, supra, at 36; see also C. Perry, Collective Bargaining and the Decline of the United Mine Workers 43 (1984) (detailing benefits of mechanization for coal operators). The president of the Southern Coal Operators' Association said in 1953 that the miners "have been promised and grown accustomed to" health benefits. App. (CA1) 2000. Those benefits, the management's W&R Fund trustee said in 1951, covered "mine worker[s], including pensioners, and dependents . . . without limit as to duration." Id., at 1972. This Court, too, has said that the UMWA "agreed not to oppose the rapid mechanization of the mines" in exchange for "increased wages" and "payments into the welfare fund." Mine Workers v. Pennington, 381 U. S. 657, 660 (1965); see also id., at 698 (Goldberg, J., concurring in judgment) (improved wages,
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