Legal Question in Employment Law in Texas

In July of 2001 I applied for a disability pension through my local union. I was denied the pension due to the fact I was not on social security. I was in the process of going through the appeal process of social security and I did not appeal the union's denial. About a year and a half later the union pension officers made an admendment to the bylaws of the pension disability requirements which after the admendment said that you had to be on social security to be able to get a disability pension. In other words I was denied on language that was not in the bylaws at the time. I knew of some others that had gained their pension because they were no longer able to perform their duties as a carpenter and were given a disability pension. According to everything I went through I proved I was not able to do that job any more and even the Social Security paperwork I received and sent to the Carpenter's Pension Office stated I was no longer able to perform those duties. I had to retrain for another career which took 4 years and that pension would have been helpful in attaining this new training. My family and I struggled while I was going through this time period and still have not recovered. I am still baffled how I could have been denied on verbage that was not in the pension bylaws. Like I have said I knew of others who were drawing this pension and not drawing social security because they could not perform the duties of a carpenter.

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