Southern California United Food and Commercial Workers Unions and Food Employers Joint Benefit Funds

Southern California United Food and Commercial Workers Unions and Food Employers Joint Benefit Funds

The Southern California United Food and Commercial Workers Unions and Food Employers Joint Benefit Funds was established in 1957 as a multiemployer defined-benefit plan. Trustee and Plan Administrator Andrea Zinder, who also serves as President of UFCW Local 324, oversees the fund alongside trustees from UFCW Local 770 and contributing employers such as Ralphs Grocery Company. The fund provides retirement, disability, and death benefits to eligible members of Southern California local unions affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. The investment strategy spans buyout, direct secondaries, distressed debt, and venture capital across seed to late-stage, plus mezzanine, natural resources, and fund-of-fund commitments. The portfolio includes direct real estate ownership of commercial and mixed-use properties: the fund’s own headquarters at 6425 Katella Avenue in Cypress, and office buildings at 616 and 630 Shatto Place in Los Angeles. Additional holdings include properties on Belle Porte Avenue in Harbor City and Camarillo Springs Road in Camarillo. The fund operates from a single headquarters in Cypress, California, and participates in the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, a standard industry association for multiemployer funds. It also administers the UFCW Unions and Food Employers Scholarship Fund, which supports educational benefits for participants and their families. Known contributing employers include Ralphs Grocery Company, reflecting the fund’s deep ties to the Southern California food retail and processing sectors. The fund’s structural differentiator is its dual role as both an institutional asset owner and a direct real estate operator — it manages its own headquarters plus a portfolio of income-producing commercial properties in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, blending pension administration with hands-on real asset management under a union-employer trustee model.