At IBEW Local 103, our priority in creating Project Labor Agreement (PLA) and Responsible Employer Ordinance jobs are well documented. Likewise, our organizing and salting efforts, our constant communication with signatory contractors in identifying potential jobs to bid and our aggressive approach to highlighting worker inequities are duly recognized. And of course the tremendous success of the Market Recovery Program speaks for itself.
One area of job creation, however, that does not receive as much attention – but is every bit as fruitful, if not more so than other strategies – is the use of union pension funds to create union jobs. Though the intricacies of the real estate investment arena are complex, Local 103's leadership has made it a top priority to make sure we are doing all we can to put our own investment funds to use in the most beneficial way. Though this may seem like an easy task with so many real estate opportunities available, the truth is that the Real Estate/Investment Market is one entirely driven by relationships and experience, not only in the investment world but with top line developers as well.
Business Manager Mike Monahan's work on the Zoning Board of Appeals in Boston and the subsequent relationships he has built over the years with the BRA and individual developers has Local 103 access to the development opportunities required to safely invest our trust funds in projects that create jobs for our workers while at the same time producing profits for our fund.
Local 103's trust funds total over $1 billion. Of this, roughly $600 million is directed to pensions, over 10% of which is invested in real estate. Investment trusts include the following current and potential projects:
"Pension Fund Investments [are] returning sound investment gains to our trust fund and are creating hundreds of jobs for members of Local 103."
By being able to access this world and maintain these investments as a priority – where Local 103 was utilizing this win-win investment track once every 4 or 5 years over the past decade or two, we are now investing in such projects at the rate of 5-7 per year – all returning sound investment gains to our trust fund and are creating hundreds of jobs for members of Local 103.