But the WGA-E's ultimate goal is industry-wide multi-employer portable health insurance.

This marks the end of the row over renewal of the multi-employer collective agreement.

The cuts would hit pensioners covered by multi-employer pension plans.

By leaving Chicago Safeway will trigger a multi-employer pension withdrawal liability generally paid evenly over 20 years.

But the level of PBGC protection for workers in multi-employer plans is much lower than for single-employer plans.

The sticking point was when New Zealand First realised employers would be required to enter multi-employer bargaining negotiations - or MECAs.

One of the most significant cost pressures facing YRC is its pension fund obligations, notably its "multi-employer" fund obligations.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said a key remaining issue was a Republican-authored provision aimed at shoring up distressed multi-employer pension plans.

The multi-employer pay deal between the doctors and DHBs expired in late February, but the dispute between them is far from over.

One of them, senior registrar Brian Corley, said DHBs were trying to remove some references to the doctors' union in their multi-employer contract.

If the plan is a "multi-employer plan," the committee or other entity that established the plan is considered the plan sponsor.

District health boards must realise the doctors would not agree to some proposed changes to the multi-employer collective agreement (MECA), he said.

Collective bargaining has been strengthened but companies can opt out of multi-employer bargaining negotiations if they have "reasonable grounds" to do so.

They're among many questions confronting both nurses and their employers as they seek to settle their multi-employer collective agreement before it lapses on 1 August.

Five years after the passing of the Employment Contracts Act union membership had halved and multi-employer collective contracts covered only a small minority of workers.

The people at risk have earned pensions in multi-employer plans, in which many companies band together with a union to provide benefits under collective bargaining.