# Western Metal Industry Pension Fund

Western Metal Industry Pension Fund is a Pension Fund based in Mercer Island, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Pension Fund
- **Headquarters:** Mercer Island, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Mercer Island, WA, United States
- **Founded:** 1960
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** westernmetalindustrypensionfund.org

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Western Metal Industry Pension Fund is a US-based pension fund established in 1960. It provides retirement benefits to machinists, electricians, sheet metal workers, painters, and other craft professionals. The fund focuses on investments in the clean tech and renewable energy sectors.

## Sectors

- Venture Capital

## People

- Arthur Boulton — Chairman and Plan Administrator

## Questions

### How does the fund's Taft-Hartley multi-employer structure affect its investment strategy?

Multi-employer status means contributions come from multiple union locals and employers under collective bargaining agreements, rather than a single corporate sponsor. The board includes both labor and management trustees, which can influence asset-allocation decisions toward strategies acceptable to both sides. The fund has chosen to include venture capital exposure alongside traditional defined-benefit portfolio assets, a less common choice in the Taft-Hartley segment.

### Which unions participate in the Western Metal Industry Pension Fund?

Participating labor organizations include the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers. The City of Tacoma is a civic employer participant with roughly 113 covered employees. The plan's name derives from its original base in the metal trades, though the participating unions now span several skilled crafts.

### Does the fund invest directly in startups or through venture capital funds?

The fund's strategy is tagged broadly as venture capital but the specific mechanism — direct investments, fund commitments, or a mix — has not been disclosed publicly. Many Taft-Hartley plans that enter venture do so through fund-of-funds or managed accounts rather than direct company investments, to address trustee fiduciary concerns and information asymmetry, but the Western Metal plan's exact approach remains internal.

### How is this fund different from a state-level public pension system like CalPERS?

Unlike a public plan with mandatory FOIA-level disclosure and hundreds of thousands of members, the Western Metal Industry Pension Fund is a private multi-employer trust with limited public reporting. Its union membership base is sector-specific rather than general public employment. Governance sits with a joint labor-management board, not a state legislative framework, and the fund is not subject to the same political investment restrictions that public plans sometimes face.

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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

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