Ironworkers National Pension Plan

Ironworkers National Pension Plan

The Ironworkers National Pension Plan provides retirement, disability, and death benefits to members of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers. Formerly known as the National Shopman's Pension Fund, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based plan operates as a multiemployer Taft-Hartley fund, with the union itself serving as founder and plan sponsor. General President Eric Dean and General Secretary Ronnie Gray act as trustees. As a union pension fund, the portfolio is shaped by a dual mandate: fiduciary return and the promotion of union employment. The plan deploys capital through investments that directly support union construction work. Known holdings include ownership of the commercial property at 1750 New York Ave NW in Washington, D.C., held through United Unions, Inc., and a stake in the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust, which finances union-built multifamily residential projects. Other disclosed positions include ULLICO common stock, a union-owned insurance and investment company, and liquid mutual fund holdings in the Vanguard Institutional Index Fund, American Funds Europacific Growth Fund, Vanguard Inflation-Protected Securities Fund, and Artisan High Income Fund. The fund sits within a tight ecosystem of labor-aligned entities. It is a member of the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans (NCCMP), which advocates for multiemployer plan interests in Washington, and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP). It collaborates closely with IMPACT, the Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust, a labor-management organization that co-invests in training and market development. The plan has not disclosed recent private commitments or direct infrastructure co-investments publicly. The structural differentiator is the plan's embeddedness in the union's labor-advocacy apparatus. Unlike a public pension fund or corporate plan, the Ironworkers plan's investment decisions run through union trustees whose interests fuse asset management with collective-bargaining strength. The plan's real estate holdings and HIT allocation are direct expressions of this architecture — putting retiree capital into projects that sustain the union workforce.