Collins

Participants in a pension plan and their union sued the administrator of the plan, the Pension and Insurance Committee (the Administrator). Plaintiffs alleged the Administrator breached its fiduciary duties by failing to increase benefits and by accepting eontributtons from employers at a rate tower than that set by the plan documents. The district court granted summary judgment for the Administrator, and the plaintiffs appeal.

The plan provides benefits to employees covered by collective bargaining agreements between the union and multiple employers in the rock products and ready mixed concrete industries in Southern California, Employers contribute at a specified hourly rate; participants are paid at a rate determined by their total service. There is no guarantee that contribution levels will match benefit levels, and in recent years, the plan has been overfunded. Because the- plan’s assets have exceeded its actuarially accrued liabilities, some contributions have not been tax-deductible by the employers.

At all relevant times, the Administrator’s power to amend the plan unilaterally was governed by the “Eighteenth Amendment” to the plan:

The Eighteenth Amendment also…