§9702 Establishment of the United Mine Workers of America Combined Benefit Fund

Summary

Creates a new private plan called the United Mine Workers of America Combined Benefit Fund and requires trustees to be picked within 60 days after the law was passed. On February 1, 1993 the 1950 UMWA Benefit Plan and the 1974 UMWA Benefit Plan must be merged into the Combined Fund, and that merger will not count as an employer withdrawal under any 1988 coal wage agreement. The Combined Fund is set up as the type of plan listed in Labor Management Relations Act section 302(c)(5), an employee welfare benefit plan under ERISA section 3(1) (29 U.S.C. 1002(1)), a multiemployer plan under ERISA section 3(37) (29 U.S.C. 1002(37)), and for purposes of this title it is treated as tax-exempt under section 501(a). The board of trustees must include 2 employer representatives chosen by the BCOA, 2 representatives chosen by the United Mine Workers of America, and 3 trustees picked by those four. Replacement trustees are picked the same way, and the plan must allow trustees to be removed. If the BCOA no longer exists, the employer trustee spots are filled by the three employers who were BCOA members on the enactment date and who have been assigned the greatest number of eligible beneficiaries under section 9706. The first plan year runs February 1, 1993 through September 30, 1993; after that each plan year starts on October 1.