Roofers Local #33

Paul Bickford, serving as Business Manager and Financial Secretary of Local 33, holds central fiduciary responsibility. Bickford also serves as an International Vice President of the parent United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers, consolidating union and retirement-plan leadership. Investment decisions are made in a trustee-governed framework standard among Taft-Hartley plans, with equal representation from union and contributing employer trustees.

Roofers Local #33 accesses private equity primarily through fund commitments to established general partners and co-investment vehicles. As a Taft-Hartley plan, the fund can leverage its AFL-CIO and North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU) affiliations for network introductions, but it does not maintain an in-house direct-sourcing operation. The fund's buyout focus means it concentrates on manager relationships that can deploy capital consistently across market cycles.

The fund pursues a concentrated buyout strategy across private equity. This orientation reflects a liability-driven investment approach: the plan's long-dated benefit obligations create tolerance for illiquidity in pursuit of higher expected returns. The strategy covers lower middle-market and mid-cap buyout funds, with no public record of venture capital, growth equity, or hedge fund allocations.

It is a multiemployer pension fund — specifically a Taft-Hartley plan governed jointly by union trustees and contributing roofing contractors. It is neither a family office nor a corporate pension fund. The plan pools contributions from multiple employers in the eastern Massachusetts commercial roofing industry and invests those assets for the exclusive benefit of union members and their beneficiaries.

The Local maintains separate funds for welfare benefits: an Insurance Fund providing health and welfare coverage, and a Health Reimbursement Arrangement program. These are legally distinct from the pension trust, with separate boards and investment policies, though administrative oversight converges at the Stoughton headquarters. This separation is mandatory under ERISA rules governing Taft-Hartley plans.

The contributing employers and union membership are concentrated in eastern Massachusetts, with the fund's headquarters and training center located in Stoughton, south of Boston. The investment portfolio extends across North America through fund commitments and co-investments, but the contribution base — and therefore the plan's financial health — is tied directly to commercial and industrial roofing activity in the Boston metropolitan area.

Roofers Local #33 maintains the Roofers Local 33 Scholarship Fund, which provides educational support for members' families. The Scholarship Fund is separate from the pension trust and the insurance vehicles, operating as an independent initiative administered through the union's existing governance structure.