The IBOTU Health & Welfare Fund administers a full spectrum of programs designed to protect union members and their families — from the everyday cost of a prescription to the income a family depends on when someone cannot work.
Comprehensive medical plans covering in-patient, out-patient, specialist visits, and preventive care. Members access a broad network of the nation's top providers.
Preventive care matters as much as treatment here — routine visits and screenings are where problems get caught early, which is better for the member and cheaper for the Fund. That alignment is the whole logic of a self-insured plan: what keeps members healthy also keeps costs down, and there is no carrier in between with a different interest.
Managed pharmacy programs with formulary flexibility, mail-order options, and specialty drug coverage — delivering significant cost savings to members and employers.
Pharmacy is one of the fastest-moving costs in any health plan, and it is where a self-insured fund has the most room to act. Because IBOTU sees its own claims data, it can negotiate directly with pharmacy vendors rather than accepting whatever arrangement an insurer has made.
Preventive and restorative dental care plus annual vision exams, frames, lenses, and contact lens coverage for members and their eligible dependents.
These are the benefits members use most often and notice most immediately. Coverage extends to eligible dependents, so a member's family sees the same benefit the member does.
Group term life insurance and Accidental Death & Dismemberment coverage provides financial security for families when they need it most.
Group term life is coverage a member holds through the Fund rather than having to qualify for individually. AD&D adds a benefit for death or serious injury caused by accident — which, for members working on loading docks, in warehouses and behind the wheel, is not an abstract risk.
Income replacement protection ensures members and their families maintain financial stability when illness or injury prevents a member from working.
Health coverage pays for treatment; disability coverage pays the household bills while a member recovers. Short-term disability covers the period immediately after an illness or injury, and long-term disability picks up where it ends for conditions that keep a member out of work longer.
Behavioral health coverage, Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), and wellness initiatives that support the complete well-being of union members and dependents.
An Employee Assistance Program gives members a confidential route to help with problems that rarely arrive alone — stress, grief, substance use, family and financial difficulty. Behavioral health coverage sits alongside it for ongoing care.
IBOTU negotiates strong, consistent wage increases that keep pace with the cost of living — ensuring members' earning power grows year over year across all participating employers.
Bargaining across many participating employers rather than one at a time is what gives those negotiations weight, and it means a raise won at the table applies broadly rather than to a single shop.
Collectively bargained protections guard members against arbitrary termination, layoffs, and outsourcing — providing the stability and peace of mind every working family deserves.
These are contract protections rather than insurance: written into the collective bargaining agreement, and enforceable through it.
Every program on this page is delivered through self-insured Taft-Hartley plans rather than bought from an insurance carrier. That structure is the reason the Fund can design benefits around members instead of around a product.
How self-insured plans work →