Beeson Tayer & Bodine has represented labor-management pension and health plans since the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which established jointly-trusteed funds. We represent eleven Teamster health funds based in Northern California and California’s Central Valley, and three Teamster pension funds. We also represent Taft-Hartley health and pension funds established by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), the Tile Setters and Sheet Metal Workers Unions, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), and Transport Workers Union of America. In light of the importance of collections and bankruptcy to our benefit fund clients, the firm has a collection and bankruptcy specialist whose practice is focused exclusively on representation of benefit plans.
While we are a “Union-side” labor law firm, and act as Union co-counsel on some funds, we are the sole counsel for most of the labor-management funds that we represent. We have maintained the confidence of both Employer and Union trustees because:
- We ‘shoot straight’ and do not attempt as fund counsel to pursue the agenda of either labor or management to the detriment of the other;
- At all times we give clear, practical, ‘real world’ advice and see our primary role as enabling the trustees to navigate the complicated legal requirements of benefits administration so that they can have confidence in their decisions and be alerted to the potential consequences of their choices ;
- As labor lawyers grounded in collective bargaining, we bring to our benefits practice a broad understanding of the world in which labor and management trustees work and of the role of the trust fund in that world.
While much of our benefits work is performed on behalf of traditional, labor-management defined benefit pension and self-insured health plans, our attorneys have been instrumental in the creation of innovative pension and health plans. The multi-union Supplemental Income 401(k) Plan is a participant-directed investment plan that has grown to over $300 million in assets since its inception in 1999. The firm has also established both ‘pay while you work’ retiree health plans within existing trust funds and a new retiree-coverage only labor-management trust. As economic realities continue to pressure multiemployer plans, we are ready to explore innovations with our clients and to develop alternatives to traditional benefit plans.
In addition to our representation of labor-management trust funds, we advise our private and public sector labor Union clients on a wide range of employee benefit matters. Our work on behalf of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the California Teachers Association (CTA) involves both advice regarding CalSTRS, CalPERS and other governmental benefit plans and the establishment of labor-management benefit funds in the public sector. We also represent individual employees with claims against non-union, single-employer, benefit plans and insurance companies.