Flanigan v. General Electric Co.

BACKGROUND

McLAUGHLIN, Circuit Judge:

The demise of the Soviet Union in the early 1990’s had a direct impact upon the *82defense industry in the United States. As the industry reshaped itself, the Martin Marietta Corporation (now Lockheed Martin or “Lockheed”) acquired the General Electric Company’s (“GE’s”) aerospace division in a bewilderingly complex transaction that closed in early April 1993 (the “deal”). In the deal, Lockheed agreed to hire all 37,000 GE aerospace employees, and to give them employee benefits that were “substantially similar to their GE benefits.” To implement that promise,…