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Retiree Health Benefits at Stake in Minneapolis-St. Paul Transit Strike.

By Julie Forster, Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Minn. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Mar. 12--After hip replacement surgery and considering the battery of pills he takes for high blood pressure, Henry Baltes decided that he couldn't gamble with his health care.

As he closed in on his 10-year anniversary as a Metro Transit bus driver, he quit in order to lock in retiree health care benefits. If Metro Transit got what it wanted, he'd be out of luck.

Baltes, 65, knows that he held in his hands an increasingly rare gem of benefits. From his vant

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