( June 2, 2026, 2:59 PM EDT) -- CHICAGO — Resolving consolidated appeals in a withdrawal liability case where “tens of millions of dollars” are at stake by upholding a mixed ruling, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s judgment “across the board,” concluding that a multiemployer pension plan had authority to expel a local bargaining unit but the plan’s counterclaim for declaratory judgment as to when the contribution obligation for that unit ended is not yet ripe because a mandatory exhaustion requirement applies and the issue must be arbitrated....