Aug. 21--Raytheon Co. has appealed a federal judge's ruling that the defense contractor must reinstate health benefits to a group of early retirees in Tucson.

The appeal, filed Tuesday, may also put on hold U.S. District Judge David C. Bury's recent decision that Raytheon must reimburse retirees for health-insurance premiums they had to pay since their benefits were dropped.

Raytheon asked the court to stay Bury's ruling, saying the company complied with the collective-bargaining agreements by providing medical coverage. The filing further stated that the "public interest favors Raytheon" because the company implemented the change to create greater parity between the affected retirees and retirees who pay for medical coverage.

In January 2006, four members of the International Association of Machinists Local 933 filed suit on behalf of the chapter's early retirees. The AFL-CIO-affiliated union represents Raytheon's hourly employees.

"To say we are disappointed would be one of the hugest understatements I could make," Clare L'Armee, one of the retirees who filed the lawsuit, said in a prepared statement on Wednesday. "I never would have imagined when I retired that the company I had worked so hard for, for so many years, would suddenly renege on its promises and charge exorbitant amounts to those of us least able to afford it."

The retiree plaintiffs on Wednesday filed a cross-appeal, seeking to reinstate claims for punitive and emotional damages and out-of-pocket costs beyond insurance premiums.

In the original lawsuit, the group of retirees argued that Raytheon began charging retirees and their immediate families for medical coverage that was negotiated under collective-bargaining agreements before 2003.

A Raytheon spokesman at the company's Waltham, Mass., headquarters said he had no comment on the appeal.

The Aug. 5 District Court ruling affected the health-care benefits of about 1,000 hourly retirees and dependents. In that decision, Bury said previous collective-bargaining agreements "unambiguously provide vested medical benefits for retirees until age 65 at no cost."

Before Raytheon's latest appeal, labor union experts said the judge's ruling sent an important signal to companies about honoring organized-labor contracts.

"Protecting the integrity of a collective-bargaining agreement and preventing companies from escaping (their) obligations -- as the federal judge's decision may do -- (are) enormously important for preserving our system of labor relations and the important benefits our economy, our society and our workers derive from it," Jeff Grabelsky, a labor-relations expert at Cornell University, said in an e-mail.

But the class-action issue also highlights how companies are coming to grips with skyrocketing health-care costs.

James C. McBrearty, a University of Arizona economics professor who studies labor relations, said companies "really are uptight about the cost of benefits" and that "a lot of employers are looking at the cost of health care."

Raytheon is the parent company of Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems. It was the largest employer in Southern Arizona, with 12,500 workers, at the end of 2007, according to the Star 200 survey of the region's major employers.

--Contact reporter Jack Gillum at 573-4178 or at jgillum@azstarnet.com.

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