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Home > About Us
ABOUT US
Who are the Funds?
There are two Funds—a Health Fund and a Pension Fund. The Funds cover employees of retail food stores, meat markets, nursing homes and similar industries,
who are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in the midwest region. There must be a union contract
between an employer and a UFCW local union that calls for contributions to be made to us on the employee-members' behalf and the employer must pay the required contributions.
Most employee-members, but not all, are covered for both health and pension benefits. Some employee-members are only in one Fund.
For example, the meatcutters are covered under the Health Fund but receive pension benefits from a national UFCW Industry pension fund.
The Health Benefits Plan provides medical, dental, life, vision and prescription drug benefits. Part-time employee-members generally receive
individual or “single” coverage. Full-time employee-members receive family coverage and a short-term disability benefit. Claims are self-administered
by the Benefits Fund Office. The Health Plan utilizes the resources of the BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois PPO to obtain discounts from hospitals and physicians.
The Pension Plan pays benefits, based upon the years of service with participating employers, commensurate with the contribution rate paid by the employer.
A full year of service is earned by working 1,600 covered hours per year. A partial year is earned by working as few as 400 hours annually. In limited cases, the Plan has
recognized “prior” service for time the employee worked in covered service prior to the employer's first union contract.
The Role of the Unions and the Employers
The unions have historically been active in the creation of the Funds and in the negotiation of contributions that allow for a decent
level of benefits. The employers make the actual payments for the benefits and provide us with employee-member information on hours worked, resignations, retirements, hires, and
leaves of absence. Both are active in the management of the Funds once established and funded.
Each Fund has a Board of Trustees consisting of three union representatives and three representatives from the participating employers; these Boards have overall authority to manage their respective Fund. The Trustees hire an
Administrator who serves as both a policy adviser to them as well as the chief operating officer of the Benefits Fund Office. The Trustees also retain the services of legal counsel, an auditor, an actuary, and various investment
advisers and money managers.
Both the Health Plan and the Pension Plan are governed by the federal Taft-Hartley law and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). State laws generally do not have an impact
on benefits or operations in that the federal ERISA law preempts such state laws. So, if a state adopts a mandatory benefit law, it will not apply to us. However, when the federal government
adopts such a law (such as five-year vesting or minimum hospitalizations for maternity), the federal law will impact the Pension Plan and the Health Plan.
The Benefits Fund Office is your contact for information about the Health and Pension Plans. Call, write or e-mail the Benefits Fund Office with any question on these important benefits.
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