Completing a change of address form and submitting it to the Fund Office, will change your address with the Fund Office, Empire BlueCross BlueShield, Medco and MetLife. You must notify the union separately so that your address will change with them as well.
No. The Metal Trades Branch Local 638 Pension Fund is a defined benefit plan in which you are a participant. Years of credited service earned in the Metal Trade Branch Local 638 Pension Fund cannot be transferred to another Pension Fund. In addition, under the Plan in effect, pension monies are nontransferable. Therefore, before you leave covered employment, we strongly suggest you contact the Fund Office Pension Department to obtain your vesting status. If you should leave the industry before you are vested under our Plan, in accordance with the Plan in effect, where there is less than five (5) years of credited service immediately followed by at least 5 consecutive One Year Breaks in Service, all years of credited service and participation in the plan will be cancelled.
The Metal Trades Branch Local 638 Pension Fund is a defined benefit plan in which you are a participant. Accumulated contributions are employer contributions made on your behalf. Under the Plan in effect, pension monies are not non-transferable nor can your pension benefit be used as collateral in securing a bank loan. In addition, these monies cannot be withdrawn, as there is no termination benefit under the Plan.
Once your divorce is finalized, you should notify the Fund Office immediately. A Qualified Domestic Relations Order ("QDRO") can require the Plan to pay part or all of your pension benefits to a former spouse or other dependent. Your pension benefits may be affected if a QDRO is included in your divorce decree or in a separate domestic relations order. The Fund Office will need to review any decrees, agreements or orders relating to your marital situation to determine if they affect the payment of your benefits.
Work in any other industry would not prevent you from collecting your pension benefit or if you are performing work, which the Trustees determine is not "Disqualifying Employment", then you could collect your pension benefit and continue your employment.
A participant/pensioner under the age of 65, may not work in "disqualifying employment" in a shop within the geographic area covered by the Plan and/or if the shop was of the same craft or industry as the Metal Trades and collect a pension benefit.
However, a participant/pensioner over the age of 65, may not work in disqualifying employment in a shop within the geographic area covered by the Plan and/or if the shop was of the same craft or industry as the Metal Trades for 40 or more hours in any month and collect a pension benefit.
At age 70 %, there is no restriction on the number of hours a participant or pensioner may work while receiving a pension benefit from the Pension Fund.
