The Integrated Resilience Checklist for Union Trustees and Workers
The conditions shaping the economy are changing in ways that are becoming harder to ignore. For union trustees, leaders, and workers, those changes show up in employer stability, in the long-term performance of pension funds, in insurance costs, in infrastructure strain, and in the industries members rely on for steady work. The pressure is real, and it is already influencing the systems workers depend on.
In this environment, it is not enough to confirm that everything is technically in order. The real issue is whether the decision-makers are truly prepared and if workers will be protected.
That comes from asking better questions. Questions about how capital allocation strategies align with beneficiary interests. Questions about whether global warming transition plans are grounded in real workforce outcomes or built on assumptions that have not been tested. Questions about whether accountability exists beyond public commitments and whether progress is being tracked in ways that actually reflect what workers will experience.
And for many union leaders, the challenge is a lack of structure. Knowing that something is shifting is different from having a clear way to assess what that shift means, where the risks and opportunities are, and how to respond.
CFA’s Integrated Resilience Checklist was built to close that gap.
It is not an audit or a report card. It is a practical tool designed to help union trustees and worker leaders engage more directly with the decisions shaping their members’ economic futures. The goal is to move conversations beyond general language and into the specific areas where readiness, risk, and accountability can be assessed more clearly.
Inside the checklist, questions are organized across five areas: strategic transition readiness, high-fidelity reporting, accountability and policy implementation, regional competitiveness and workforce stability, and strategic advisory capacity. Each section is designed to help you understand what is being done and what that means for workers over time.
It also reflects something important: unions are already doing this work. Across states like New York, Illinois, Oregon, Washington, and Massachusetts, union leaders and trustees are engaging pension boards, employers, and policymakers with greater intention. The examples included demonstrate what becomes possible when workers engage their pension funds directly.
The checklist also provides a way to ask more precise questions and to begin building the knowledge and leverage needed to act on what you find.
Download the Integrated Resilience Checklist now and start using it in your conversations with trustees, employers, and fellow members.
If you are thinking through how these questions apply to your specific fund, industry, or state, we can work through that together.
