Aug. 27--The approval Friday by U.S. District Court Judge John R. Adams of the independent health-care trust fund for retirees of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is a welcome endorsement of reality.

The cost of health-care benefits puts at a significant disadvantage older companies that have obligations to generations of retired workers. In a global economy, the so-called legacy costs present a serious drag on a company's financial flexibility against competitors that do not face similar degrees of responsibility to retired workers. If the rising cost of benefits strains the corporate bottom line, it is no minor source of anxiety for workers, either, all too often proving the sticking point in labor negotiations .

For that more reason, it was a significant breakthrough when officials of Goodyear and the United Steelworkers last year worked out a settlement that addressed the concerns of both the company and union retirees over health benefits.

The settlement approved in federal court clears the way for Goodyear to create a trust fund, with a one-time payment of $1 billion, to cover the health claims of qualified retirees of the Steelworkers union. Current union workers also will make contributions into the fund, the Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Association. The fund, independent of Goodyear and overseen by nine trustees, will thus relieve the company of further obligations for retiree health benefits.

The projection is the plan will cover health benefits for some 30,000 retirees and their spouses, possibly for as long as 30 years, with saving to Goodyear estimated at $100 million a year. As Detroit's Big Three automakers have demonstrated, the trust fund is a model well worth support.

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