Northern California Plastering Industry Pension Plan

The plan is jointly trusteed under Taft-Hartley rules. Chester Murphy serves as Chairman and Union Trustee, representing participating union locals. Jim Taylor serves as Secretary and Employer Trustee, representing the signatory contractors of the Wall and Ceiling Alliance. The board structure balances labor and management interests, as required by ERISA for multi-employer defined-benefit plans.

The plan concentrates on real estate and secondary-market fund stakes tied to union labor standards. Known commitments include the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust, which finances multifamily and mixed-use projects, and ULLICO's J for Jobs program, targeting commercial developments that use union workers. This approach aligns investment returns with the construction-employment mission of the participating locals.

Three Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' International Association locals participate: Local 66, Local 300, and Local 797. These locals represent plasterers, shophands, and cement masons across Northern California. The Wall and Ceiling Alliance serves as the employer association for signatory contractors who contribute to the plan on behalf of their union workforce.

The plan's disclosed real estate commitments strongly favor union-built or union-renovated assets. The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust and ULLICO J for Jobs program both impose workforce standards requiring union labor on financed projects. This preference is consistent with Taft-Hartley plans in the building trades, where trustee-fiduciaries often view non-union construction as misaligned with beneficiary interests.

The plan allocates primarily through pooled investment vehicles managed by labor-aligned asset managers. The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust operates as a commingled fixed-income and real estate fund, while ULLICO's J for Jobs provides commercial real estate exposure. The Altss research record tags the plan's strategy as predominantly secondaries, suggesting a heavy emphasis on acquiring existing fund stakes rather than primary direct investments.

No current Form 5500 filing or publicly released annual report provides the plan's total assets. The plan maintains no website and does not disclose AUM through press releases or trustee statements. This opacity is typical of smaller occupation-specific Taft-Hartley funds that are not subject to public-records laws and file disclosures without proactive dissemination.

The Wall and Ceiling Alliance acts as the multi-employer bargaining group representing signatory contractors who contribute to the pension plan. These contractors employ union plasterers and cement masons across the three participating locals. The Alliance's labor agreements set the contribution rates that fund the plan's defined-benefit obligations, making it the employer-facing counterpart to the union-trustee side of plan governance.