International Union of Operating Engineers Local 98 Pension Fund

International Union of Operating Engineers Local 98 Pension Fund

International Union of Operating Engineers Local 98 Pension Fund, established in 1959, provides retirement benefits to members of the heavy equipment operators' union based in Southwick, Massachusetts. The plan operates as part of the broader Central Pension Fund framework, governed by a joint board of trustees that includes union officers such as Business Manager Philip Chaffee and employer representatives from Western Massachusetts construction firms including Gagliarducci Construction, Northern Construction Service, and Palmer Paving Corp. The fund pursues an unusually diversified strategy for its scale, spanning direct co-investments, buyouts, distressed debt, mezzanine lending, venture capital from seed to late stage, fund-of-funds commitments, and secondaries. Confirmed real estate assets include the Local 98 Training Fund facility in Southwick and a commercial training site in Sunderland, suggesting a preference for owning operational real estate in its immediate geographic footprint. The fund's allocation to early-stage venture and distressed credit through a Taft-Hartley structure is notable given the regulatory constraints typically applied to jointly trusteed plans. The board of trustees reflects the fund's joint labor-management governance, with Secretary Janet Callahan representing Palmer Paving Corp and David J. Tierney III representing his family's construction firm alongside union-side trustees. The fund also maintains ties to the Foundation for Fair Contracting of Massachusetts, a labor-affiliated advocacy group. Team size and specific deployment figures are not publicly disclosed. Taft-Hartley pension funds are subject to ERISA fiduciary standards and must balance labor priorities with investment returns. Local 98's willingness to commit capital to venture and distressed strategies — highly illiquid and fee-intensive categories typically disfavored by smaller public pensions — distinguishes it from peers. That posture, combined with the hands-on trustee governance model where employer and union representatives sit jointly on investment decisions, creates a sourcing dynamic that functions more like a private investment club than a typical bureaucratic pension fund.