Automotive Industries Trust Funds

Investment policy is set by a Board of Trustees split evenly between labor and management representatives. Labor trustees are appointed by participating unions, including the International Association of Machinists District 190 and Teamsters Local 853. Management trustees are appointed by employer associations such as the California Metal Trades Association and directly by major contributing employers including UPS and Waste Management. Charles Besocke serves as Plan Manager, handling day-to-day administration through Health Services & Benefit Administrators, Inc.

The fund maintains a venture allocation spanning seed to late-stage, executed primarily through fund-of-funds relationships and select direct co-investments alongside established general partners. As a multiemployer plan, its venture pacing tends to be conservative and relationship-driven, favoring managers with long track records rather than first-time funds. Specific fund commitments are not publicly disclosed at the manager-name level.

Contributing employers include United Parcel Service, Republic Services, Waste Management, Sonic Automotive, and SSA Terminals, among other automotive and logistics-sector companies. The plan's multiemployer structure means each contributing employer is bound by collective bargaining agreements that specify contribution rates, which historically provides more stable inflow than single-employer plans in cyclical industries.

Yes. Per PBGC public records, the Automotive Industries Trust Funds applied for and were approved to receive Special Financial Assistance grants under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. This program was established to assist troubled multiemployer plans in meeting participant obligations through 2051 without cutting benefits.

As a Taft-Hartley plan, the trust operates under joint labor-management governance with fiduciary duties running exclusively to participants and beneficiaries, not to any single corporate parent. This creates an investment mandate focused on long-term liability matching and stable returns rather than the strategic priorities of a corporate parent, and makes the plan a genuine institutional limited partner independent of the auto-industry employers that fund it.

Yes, the fund holds legacy direct real estate investments alongside its private equity and venture commitments. These assets likely consist of income-producing commercial properties acquired over the plan's multi-decade history. The real estate allocation sits alongside the buyout, venture, and public-markets portfolios as part of the fund's diversification strategy.

The principal unions are East Bay Automotive Machinists Lodge No. 1546, affiliated with the International Association of Machinists District 190, and Teamsters Local 853. These unions appoint labor trustees to the board and represent the mechanics, drivers, and warehouse workers whose retirement benefits the plan secures.