How many hours do I need for full A coverage under the BCMEA welfare plan?

A coverage qualifies on a rolling basis with either 300 hours in the most recent 3 months OR 1,200 hours in the most recent 12 months. You only need to clear one of the two paths at any given measurement point.

What's the difference between A coverage and B coverage?

Both tiers include extended health, vision, dental, and EAP. A coverage adds the wage-loss benefits: Weekly Indemnity (short-term disability), Long-Term Disability, partial LTD, and Critical Illness, plus higher Group Life and AD&D amounts. B coverage strips out the wage-loss benefits and pays half the Life/AD&D dollar amount.

Do vacation hours count toward keeping my BCMEA welfare coverage?

Yes for continuing eligibility. Authorized vacation, approved leave of absence, authenticated time loss due to sickness or injury, part-time Union official hours, and Acting Foreman hours all fold into the 300 or 1,200 hour total that keeps you covered. But those same non-worked hours do NOT count for upgrading from B to A. Only hours actually worked move you up a tier.

What happens if I miss the welfare threshold?

If you cross the deadline without hitting either threshold, the plan re-rates you. An A-coverage member who falls short can drop to B. A B-coverage member who falls short can drop off the plan. There is often a grace period and a re-qualification process, but during the gap, claims that would have been covered at the old tier may not be.

How is BCMEA welfare different from the WIPP pension?

Different plans, different rules. WIPP is the defined-benefit pension you draw at retirement (governed by the Waterfront Industry Pension Plan booklet). Welfare is current-year health and disability coverage that you re-qualify for every 3 or 12 months using hour thresholds (governed by the ILWU / Employer Welfare Plan booklet). Welfare hours and pension service are tracked separately.

BCMEA Benefits Coverage: the 300 and 1,200 hour rules

Most guys think of "benefits" as something you have until you don't. Like a salary perk that comes with the job. BCMEA welfare doesn't work like that.

Your coverage is earned in hours, on a rolling deadline. Every three months and every twelve months, the plan looks back at what you actually worked and decides whether you still qualify. Miss the threshold and your family's coverage drops to a lower tier, or off the plan entirely.

This is the part nobody really explains until you're sitting in the WEBC office after the fact, asking why your dental claim got denied.

The two tiers: A and B

The ILWU / Employer Welfare Plan runs two main coverage tiers for active members and casuals.

A coverage is the full plan. Extended health at 100% reimbursement with no deductible. Vision. Dental. EAP. Group Life and AD&D at the higher dollar amount. And critically, the wage-loss benefits: Weekly Indemnity (short-term disability) and Long-Term Disability. If you get hurt off the job or sick and can't work, A coverage is what replaces a chunk of your income while you recover.

B coverage is the stripped-down version. You still get extended health, vision, dental, and EAP. Group Life and AD&D are roughly half the A-tier dollar amount. But the wage-loss benefits (Weekly Indemnity, LTD, partial LTD, critical illness) are not covered at B. If you slip on ice next January with B coverage, the plan won't be paying you while you can't work.

That gap between A and B is the single biggest financial reason to know which tier you're sitting in.

(There's also a "Lower Board / LCA" tier for board-less casuals at some Locals, which carries roughly B-equivalent benefits with its own threshold. Most Local 502 casuals have a board and won't see this tier. Foremen, Local 514, are on a separate Foremen's Welfare Plan entirely.)

The two hour paths

For A coverage, the plan gives you two ways to qualify on a rolling basis. You only need to clear one of them at any given measurement point:

300 hours in the most recent 3 months, OR
1,200 hours in the most recent 12 months

The 300-in-3 path is the short-window safety net. If you've had a strong recent quarter (a heavy stretch of vessels, lots of dispatch), you're covered going forward even if the longer rolling year has been quieter.

The 1,200-in-12 path is the long-window stability test. If you've put together a steady year of work, you stay on the plan even through a soft quarter.

B coverage uses a single path: 600 hours in the most recent 12 months. Lower Board / LCA uses the same 600-hour rolling-year test.

These numbers come straight from the ILWU / Employer Welfare Plan booklet for active members. The Black Book collective agreement points to Article 9 and the Plan itself for the actual hour thresholds. For welfare eligibility, the Plan booklet is authoritative, not the CA.

The "act by" deadline and what crossing it means

The thresholds aren't tested once a year. They're tested on a rolling basis, which means there's always an "act by" deadline somewhere on your horizon: the date your 3-month or 12-month window closes on a particular shift.

If you hit one of the thresholds, you stay in your tier. Nothing happens. You don't get a letter. The plan just keeps paying claims.

If you cross the deadline without hitting either threshold, the plan re-rates you. An A-coverage member who falls short can drop to B. A B-coverage member who falls short can drop off the plan. Depending on the path you're on, there's often a grace period and a re-qualification process, but you're now in the position of climbing back, not staying put. And during the gap, claims that would have been covered at the old tier may not be.

The point isn't to memorise the exact administrative mechanics. The point is: the deadline is real, it's rolling, and missing it costs you coverage you've already been planning around.

What hours actually count

Here's the part that trips up most members. Not every hour on your record counts the same way for welfare purposes.

Per the Plan booklet, hours that count toward continuing eligibility include:

Hours actually worked on the waterfront
Authorized vacation time
Approved leave of absence (medical leave, personal leave)
Authenticated time loss due to sickness or injury
Part-time Union official hours
Acting Foreman hours

So if you took two weeks of vacation and a week of medical leave in your rolling 3-month window, those hours fold into the 300 you need.

Here's the rule that catches people: those same non-worked hours count for keeping coverage, not for upgrading it. If you're sitting at B and trying to climb to A, only hours actually worked move you up. Vacation, leave, sickness, Union official time hold you in place but don't push you forward.

For drop-risk math, count everything that counts. For upgrade math, count worked hours only.

What's covered at each tier (high level)

Both tiers include:

Extended health: prescription drugs, paramedical, medical supplies, hearing aids, prosthetics
Vision care
Dental care (dependent dental cuts off at age 19)
EAP: confidential counselling through the ILWU/BCMEA Employee Assistance Programme

A coverage adds on top of that:

Weekly Indemnity: short-term wage replacement after a 3-day waiting period, up to 52 weeks
Long-Term Disability: kicks in after Weekly Indemnity is exhausted, runs to age 65
Partial LTD: weeks 68 to 104
Critical Illness: spouse top-up to EI Caregiver benefits
Higher Group Life and AD&D dollar amounts (roughly double the B-tier coverage)

Specific dollar amounts move year to year as the trustees update the plan. The 2026 booklet has the current numbers; check there or check the Benefits Coverage screen in DockBook. Both pull from the same source.

Why the connection to Live Average matters

Most members find out they're at risk too late, when WEBC sends a letter or a claim gets denied. By then there's nothing you can do about the window that just closed.

This is where board pace comes in. If your board is averaging 1,150 hours over a rolling year and you're tracking with the board, you're going to come up short of 1,200. That's information you want in March, not in December.

DockBook's Live Average Hours shows the crowdsourced average for your specific board (A Board, B Board, RWF) pulled from every DockBook user dispatching alongside you. Comparing your pace to your peers tells you whether the work itself is there, or whether you're falling behind a board that's actually getting hours. If the board is at 1,400 and you're at 1,000, that's a you problem and you can pick up extra dispatch. If the board is at 1,100 and you're at 1,050, the work isn't there and you need to plan for a likely tier drop.

The threshold is a hard cliff. The information that you're approaching the cliff is the part the contract doesn't give you.

How DockBook helps

The Benefits Coverage screen (Pro) is built directly off the rules above. It shows:

Your current tier (A, B, or Lower Board), driven by your board placement
Your rolling 3-month hours against the 300 threshold
Your rolling 12-month hours against the 1,200 (or 600) threshold
Your "act by" deadline (the date the next test closes)
What's covered at your current tier vs the tier above or below

Hours pulled in are worked hours plus vacation, medical leave, personal leave, and Union official time. That's the continuation set from the booklet. The upgrade calculation uses worked hours only.

The Benefit Risk Alerts card (Settings, Pro) runs on top of this. The "Benefit Coverage Drop" alert fires when your projected hours through the end of the current window are going to land you below threshold. Not "you're already off." Trending below, here's the date, here's roughly how many hours you need to pick up. You can set the intensity to All alerts or Critical-only.

Final eligibility is always determined by WEBC and the Plan trustees. The app is an early-warning system, not a substitute for the Plan office. If you're close to a threshold and unsure, call WEBC at (604) 689-7184. That's the source of truth for what the Plan actually has on file for you.

Closing

Benefits aren't given. They're tracked. Track them.

The 300/1,200 thresholds are the line between "my family has dental and disability coverage" and "my family doesn't." The contract puts that line in plain numbers. The Plan booklet tells you exactly which hours count. And your own DockBook record tells you in real time which side of the line you're sitting on.

See Benefits Coverage in the app for the live tracker, and turn on Benefit Risk Alerts in Settings so you don't find out about a coverage drop after the window has already closed.

Caveats

This is a plain-English explainer based on the ILWU / Employer Welfare Plan booklet for active members (effective January 1, 2026) and the BCMEA collective agreement Black Book 2023-2027. It is not a legal document and not a substitute for the Plan text or a conversation with WEBC. Numbers and thresholds are accurate as of the date posted; trustees update the plan periodically. Always verify with WEBC before making a benefits decision.

If you spot something out of date or wrong, email me.