Operating Engineers Local 324 Pension Fund

Operating Engineers Local 324 Pension Fund

The Operating Engineers Local 324 Pension Fund was established through collective bargaining between the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 324 and signatory employer groups including Associated General Contractors of Michigan and the Michigan Infrastructure & Transportation Association. The plan provides defined benefits to heavy-equipment operators and stationary engineers across the state. Douglas W. Stockwell serves as Business Manager of the local union and trustee to the fund, with Scott Hart as CFO. The fund's portfolio includes direct ownership of commercial real estate, most notably the 1001 Woodward Avenue office tower in downtown Detroit. It also maintains a position in the ABS Long/Short Strategies Fund, a Milwaukee-based hedge fund vehicle. The plan's multi-employer structure — jointly governed by labor and management trustees — dictates a conservative, income-oriented posture focused on meeting ongoing benefit obligations rather than aggressive growth. In recent years the plan has operated under critical and declining status designations, filing rehabilitation plans with the Internal Revenue Service as required by the Pension Protection Act. These filings detail benefit reductions, contribution increases, and asset-allocation adjustments intended to extend the fund's projected solvency. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation provides a federal backstop if the plan ultimately fails. The fund controls additional real estate through the Operating Engineers Local 324 Building Corporation, including mixed-use properties in Bloomfield Township. What distinguishes the Local 324 pension plan is its role as a central vehicle in Michigan's multi-employer pension crisis — a Taft-Hartley fund squeezed between legacy benefit promises and a declining active-worker contribution base, a pattern visible across dozens of similar building-trades plans. Its investment program runs through a board of trustees rather than a professionalized internal investment staff, so asset-allocation decisions sit with union and employer representatives who typically rely on external consultants and fund-of-fund relationships.