Health and Welfare Trust Plan Booklet
Safeway Division --- Overwaitea Division

The UFCW Health and Welfare Trust

During 1998, the employee benefit plans for members of Locals 2000 and 1518, who are employed at Safeway and Overwaitea, merged with the existing UFCW Local 1518 Health and Welfare Trust. The amended plan and trust is called the UFCW Health and Welfare Trust.

The trust, in accordance with the provisions of your collective agreement, provides the following health and welfare benefits to eligible members:

Extended Health Care: This benefit provides you with access to many health care services and products not provided by the Medical Services Plan, such as reimbursement for prescription drugs, eyeglasses, hearing aids and private hospital room accommodation. Payment of these expenses protects your income from loss attributed to health care costs.
Long and Short Term Disability Plans: These benefits secure your income to a great extent in the event you become ill or injured for a period longer than the standard sick leave provisions of your collective agreement.
Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) Plan: This benefit is payable in the event of an accident that causes your death or the loss of limbs, vision, or hearing.
Life Insurance Plan: This benefit provides your beneficiary with a degree of income security in the event of your death.
To your benefit will provide you with important information on all these benefit plans. It will also keep you up to date on how the health and welfare benefit trust is working on your behalf.

Your Health and Welfare Trust

Before participating in the UFCW Health and Welfare Trust, the employers had sole control of the delivery of your health and welfare benefits. Under the new UFCW Health and Welfare Trust, you, through your union, are an equal partner in making decisions regarding these benefits.

With this new arrangement, a Board of Trustees receives employer contributions and manages these funds in order to provide the health and welfare benefits that have been negotiated between your employer and your union. The Board of Trustees has equal representation from both unions and participating employers. The Trustees are responsible for ensuring that the trust is adequately funded. They are also obligated to make safe and conservative investment decisions with the trust funds. In order to qualify as a health and welfare trust according to Canadian tax laws, the Trustees must ensure that the trust funds are used to provide health and welfare benefits to eligible members.

Additionally, trust funds are used to cover the operational expenses incurred by the Health and Welfare Trust in maintaining the smooth functioning of your negotiated benefits.