Teamsters Local 703

The pension plans are governed by boards of trustees composed equally of union-appointed and employer-appointed representatives, as required under Taft-Hartley rules. Thomas Stiede, the local's secretary-treasurer, is the principal union-side officer involved in plan governance. Day-to-day investment management is typically delegated to external consultants and institutional asset managers, though specific mandates and manager names are not publicly disclosed.

Local 703 is an affiliated local union chartered by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). It operates under the IBT's constitution, receives national bargaining support and strike-fund access, and coordinates regionally through Teamsters Joint Council 25, which covers Chicago and Northwest Indiana. The pension funds themselves are legally separate trusts, not assets of the IBT national pension plan.

Funding comes from hourly employer contributions negotiated in collective bargaining agreements with grocery chains, food processors, and beer distributors in the Chicago area. Contribution rates are set per covered hour worked and remitted directly to the trusts. Because these are defined-benefit multi-employer plans, investment returns, contribution levels, and benefit payouts all affect the funded status. The plans do not have individual participant accounts or member-directed investment options.

No. Local 703 maintains its own separate pension trusts — including the Grocery & Food Employees' Pension Fund and the Beer Industry Pension Fund — distinct from the Teamsters Central States, Southeast & Southwest Areas Pension Fund. Central States covers different Teamsters locals and has its own fraught history of benefit cuts and PBGC intervention. Local 703's plans have independent trustee governance and no reported participation in the Central States multi-employer restructuring.

The union hall is at 1333 Butterfield Road in Downers Grove. The Grocery & Food Employees' Pension Fund is administered from 625 Enterprise Drive in Oak Brook. The Beer Industry Pension & Welfare Fund operates from 18660 Graphic Drive in Tinley Park. This separation reflects the federal requirement under ERISA that pension trust assets and administration be maintained independently from union operating funds, with dedicated staff and fiduciary recordkeeping.

The Teamsters Local 703 Labor Management Cooperation Committee is a joint union-employer entity, authorized under the Labor Management Cooperation Act of 1978, focused on improving labor relations, workplace safety, training programs, and productivity outside the adversarial grievance and arbitration process. It is not an investment vehicle or operating business. It has no reported connection to the pension trusts' asset management or governance.

The plans do not publicly disclose assets under management or total participant counts in a regularly updated format. Detailed actuarial valuations, investment holdings, and funded ratios are reported on IRS Form 5500 filings, which are public record but may lag by 18–24 months and are not consolidated into a single fund-level disclosure. No recent AUM figure has been published in major financial media or in the plans' available public filings.