# Iron Workers Local #808 (IW)

Iron Workers Local #808 (IW) is a Pension Fund based in Orlando, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Pension Fund
- **Headquarters:** Orlando, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** 200 East Landstreet Rd, Orlando, FL 32824, United States
- **Assets under management:** Sub-$500M (Altss estimate)
- **Website:** ironworkers808.com
- **LinkedIn:** linkedin.com/company/iron-workers-local-808

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

The Iron Workers Local #808 Pension Fund is a collectively bargained, multi-employer retirement plan based in Orlando, Florida. It serves the eligible ironworkers — structural, ornamental, and reinforcing — who build Central Florida's skyline, bridges, and industrial frameworks. Plan assets are held in trust and managed under the direction of the Board of Trustees, with Robert 'Bobby' Knost serving as Financial Secretary, Treasurer, and Business Manager, a role that combines plan administrative oversight with direct union leadership. The plan's investment strategy is heavily concentrated in private market buyout strategies. According to its disclosed investment posture, the fund allocates primarily across real estate, infrastructure, and industrial buyout funds — an approach that aligns closely with the trade knowledge of its beneficiary base. Geographic focus is overwhelmingly domestic, favoring the North American middle market where labor-sensitive, real-asset-intensive businesses operate. While the fund does not publicly disclose direct co-investment positions, the buyout-centric mandate implies a general partner relationship model rather than a direct investment program. Total plan assets are not publicly reported, but the fund's structure as a single-local Taft-Hartley plan serving one trade in a single metropolitan region places it in the sub-$500 million bracket. The plan is affiliated with the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, the parent international union. The broader Local 808 complex includes the Pension Fund, an Annuity Fund, and a General Fund, alongside the Southeastern Iron Workers Health Care Plan (a multi-employer health plan shared with other regional locals) and the Ironworkers Federal Credit Union. The union also operates the Three Wisemen Apprentice and Training Facility in Orlando and provides scholarships through the Iron Workers Scholarship Fund. The plan's distinguishing structural feature is not its investment strategy but its governance: it is a jointly trusteed Taft-Hartley fund, meaning its board includes both union representatives and contributing employer representatives. This bipartite oversight creates a deliberate friction in investment decision-making, balancing labor's preference for job-creating investments against management's fiduciary duty to minimize costs. That governance model, combined with a buyout-only mandate concentrated in the built-environment sectors its members work in daily, makes the fund's capital allocation a direct, observable translation of trade union economics into institutional investment policy.

## Sectors

- Real Estate
- Infrastructure
- Real Assets

## People

- Robert 'Bobby' Knost — Financial Secretary, Treasurer, and Business Manager

## Questions

### How does the Local 808 Pension Fund's investment strategy connect to its membership?

The fund's buyout-oriented mandate in infrastructure, real estate, and industrial assets directly mirrors the skilled trades its members perform — structural steel erection, reinforcing ironwork, and ornamental metal installation. This labor-aligned, real-asset focus is common among building-trades pension funds, which often favor investments in sectors where their beneficiary base has economic engagement. The approach does not constitute a directed or impact mandate but represents a structural alignment between the members' trade knowledge and the fund's asset-allocation preferences.

### Is the Local 808 Pension Fund a single fund or part of a larger financial complex?

It operates as part of a broader Iron Workers Local #808 financial complex that includes the Pension Fund, an Annuity Fund, and a General Fund, all based in Orlando. The union also participates in the Southeastern Iron Workers Health Care Plan, a multi-employer health plan serving multiple regional locals, and maintains a relationship with the Ironworkers Federal Credit Union. These vehicles are operated as legally separate entities with distinct boards and trust agreements, as required by ERISA.

### What is the relationship between Local #808 and the International Association of Iron Workers?

Local #808 is a chartered local affiliate of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, the parent international union headquartered in Washington, D.C. The pension fund itself is a separate legal trust, jointly governed by local union and employer trustees, and is not directly controlled by the International. However, the International's influence can shape investment policy indirectly through trustee education and guidance provided to affiliated local plans.

### Does the Local 808 Pension Fund face any notable actuarial pressures?

As a single-local, single-trade Taft-Hartley plan in the construction sector, the fund's health is tied closely to Central Florida construction activity and the strength of contributing employers. The plan's Form 5500 filings provide periodic snapshots of funded status. Taft-Hartley plans nationally have faced demographic headwinds from an aging beneficiary base, though Florida's strong construction market has benefited many local building-trades funds in recent years. Current funded-ratio data is not publicly confirmed outside the filed returns.

## Related profiles

- [Iron Workers Local 167](https://altss.com/profile/iron-workers-local-167)
- [Iron Workers Local No. 25 Pension Fund](https://altss.com/profile/iron-workers-local-no-25-pension-fund)

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Last updated: 2026-08-11T02:43:31.692Z

Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/iron-workers-local-808-iw

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