Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers Local #3 NY Buffalo

Investment oversight is the responsibility of the Board of Trustees — a joint labor-management board with equal representation from union officers and signatory contractors. President Richard A. Williamson serves as a union-side trustee and also holds a seat on the Investment Committee of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. Day-to-day asset management is delegated to external institutional managers through pooled vehicles, a standard practice for Taft-Hartley plans of this size where the trustee board sets allocation policy but does not select individual securities.

The local sponsors three distinct ERISA-regulated plans: the Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers Local No. 3 NY Niagara Falls-Buffalo Chapter Pension Plan, a defined-benefit retirement plan; the Niagara Falls-Buffalo Chapter Annuity Plan, a defined-contribution vehicle; and the BAC Local 3 Buffalo Health and Welfare Fund, which covers active-member medical, dental, and vision benefits. These plans are funded through hourly employer contributions established in the local's collective bargaining agreements.

There is no public evidence of direct real estate, venture capital, or private equity co-investment programs within the benefit funds themselves. The funds deploy capital through institutional pooled vehicles — insurance company separate accounts and bank collective investment trusts — consistent with the conservative liquidity and diversification requirements that govern small multi-employer plans under ERISA. The union hall and training center at 1175 William Street is owned separately as a union operating asset, not held within the pension or annuity trusts.

Governance follows the Taft-Hartley model: an equal-representation Board of Trustees drawn from union leadership and signatory contractor organizations. Trustee decisions — including investment manager selection, allocation policy, and benefit levels — must satisfy ERISA fiduciary standards. The local's bargaining relationships with the Buffalo & Niagara Building Construction and Trades Council and the Construction Exchange of Buffalo & WNY provide the employer-side trustees who sit alongside union-appointed fiduciaries.

Local #3 NY Buffalo is a subordinate chapter of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, the North American parent union headquartered in Washington, D.C. The international provides organizing support, apprenticeship curriculum standards through its International Masonry Institute, and political advocacy. However, the Local #3 benefit funds are independently governed — the international does not control investment policy, which rests entirely with the local's joint labor-management trustee board.

The local's jurisdiction covers Erie and Niagara counties in Western New York, including the cities of Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Tonawanda, and surrounding suburbs. Members perform brick, stone, block, marble, terrazzo, tile, cement, and refractory work on commercial, industrial, and institutional projects throughout this territory. The training center at 1175 William Street in Buffalo serves as the apprenticeship hub for the jurisdiction.

The local participates in community fundraising for the Buffalo Public Schools Foundation and Oishei Children's Hospital in Buffalo. These are social-pact activities typical of building trades locals — separate from benefit fund assets and typically funded through member donations, event proceeds, and union general fund allocations rather than retirement plan corpus.