Here is an excellent post by James Baker at Baker & McKenzie explaining the recent case law that roundly supports instituting arbitration as the mechanism to resolve employee benefit disputes.
Given the current case law which is enforcing class action waivers, arbitration is an excellent way of knocking out ERISA class actions.
http://f.datasrvr.com/fr1/013/97535/REQUIEM_FOR_ERISA_CLASS_ACTIONS.pdf