HEALTH

Judge Halts Firm From Ending Retirees’ Health Benefits: A federal judge in Nashville, Tenn., said Pirelli Armstrong Tire Co. cannot terminate the health care benefits of retirees. The United Rubber Workers union sued Pirelli Armstrong after the union said the company was terminating retirees’ health care benefits 90 days after the labor contract expired July 15. “The court finds that the defendants did not have the right . . . to terminate the retirees’ benefits unilaterally,” U.S. District Judge John T. Nixon wrote in his order. Pirelli said during the weeklong trial that the $30 million a year it was paying in retirees’ health care benefits was draining the company financially. The ruling affects about 3,200 retirees and surviving spouses of retirees who have died.