How many hours do I need for MILA health coverage?

700 credited hours in a contract year gets you the Core Plan. 1,000 to 1,299 hours is the Basic Plan, 1,300 to 1,999 is Premier, and 2,000 or more is the Super Tier. Source: MILA National Health SPD (2021) and the 2025 MILA seminar materials.

What is the MILA contract year?

October 1 to September 30. The hours you earn in that year decide which plan covers you in the following calendar year, January to December.

What is the MILA Super Tier?

A tier above Premier for members with 2,000 or more hours in a contract year, added by the 2024-2030 USMX-ILA Master Contract. The first Super Tier coverage started January 1, 2026, for hours earned October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025.

How do new ILA hires get MILA coverage?

A new employee who starts on or after October 1, 2024 and works at least 480 hours in a rolling six-month period during their first 12 months becomes eligible for the Core Plan. They then have to work at least 60 hours every month to keep it until the standard 700-hour rule takes over.

Do I get MILA hours while I'm hurt?

If you qualify for workers' compensation or local port plan accident-and-sickness benefits, MILA credits hours weekly: 14 for Core, 20 for Basic, 26 for Premier and 40 for Super Tier, capped at that tier's yearly number, for up to 24 months per illness or injury.

MILA hours: how ILA health coverage is earned on the October contract year

MILA is the health plan for ILA longshoremen under the USMX-ILA Master Contract. Your coverage is earned in credited hours, counted over a contract year that runs October 1 to September 30, and the total decides which plan you and your family are on for the next calendar year.

The details are where guys get caught, so here's how the plan documents actually read. Sources are the MILA National Health Summary Plan Description (2021), the 2024-2025 Summary of Material Modifications, the 2025 MILA national seminar materials, and the 2024-2030 USMX-ILA Memorandum of Settlement.

The four tiers

The SPD sets three plans by credited hours in the contract year. The 2024-2030 Master Contract added a fourth on top.

Credited hours in the contract year	Plan for the next calendar year
700 to 999	Core
1,000 to 1,299	Basic
1,300 to 1,999	Premier
2,000 or more	Super Tier

The SPD table says Premier is "1,300 or More Hours." The 2025 seminar materials cap Premier at 1,999 because the Super Tier now starts at 2,000. The newer document wins.

Under 700 hours, there is no plan in the table. That's the line that matters most.

The contract year, and the lag

The SPD is plain about it: "A contract year begins on October 1st and ends on September 30th." Its own example: 1,250 credited hours in the contract year puts you on the Basic Plan "in the following calendar year."

The 2024-2025 SMM shows the timing with real dates: hours earned October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025 gave Super Tier coverage starting January 1, 2026. So the contract year closes in September, and the plan it earns runs the next January to December. Hours you work this October start a fresh count: they go toward the contract year that ends next September 30.

Coverage ends, per the SPD chart, "on the last day of the calendar year following the end of a contract year in which you fail to receive credited hours sufficient to qualify for a MILA benefit." A short year doesn't cut you off in October. It shows up the following January.

The Super Tier

The 2024-2030 Memorandum of Settlement, section K, created it: "There shall be a 'Super' tier of MILA coverage for employees who accrue 2,000 hours or more in a contract year." Eligibility started with hours earned in the contract year beginning October 1, 2024. The MOS describes it as enhanced medical, dental and vision benefits, "including, but not limited to, zero deductibles and copays."

The 2024-2025 SMM puts a date on it: Super Tier coverage is "effective January 1, 2026, for workers who earned 2,000 or more hours during the October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025, Contract Year."

New hires: 480 hours, then 60 a month

The 2024-2030 MOS told the MILA trustees to set eligibility for new employees before their first anniversary. The 2024-2025 SMM is the result, effective August 1, 2025.

Getting in. A new employee who starts on or after October 1, 2024 and "works at least 480 hours in a rolling six-month period during the employee's first 12 months" becomes eligible for the Core Plan.
Keeping it. Starting July 1, 2025, that employee "must continue to work at least 60 hours every month" to keep coverage. That monthly test runs until the standard rule takes over.
After that. The standard rule: "700 or more hours of credited service in a particular Contract Year."

The SMM's own example: 80 hours a month for six months is 480, eligible. Five months at 80 and one at 60 is 460, not eligible. Twenty hours short is a miss.

Drop under 60 in a month and you lose coverage. You can keep the Core Plan by electing and paying for COBRA, and you can earn your way back in under the 700-hour rule whether or not you took COBRA.

Disability credit

If you're hurt and qualify for workers' compensation, or for accident-and-sickness benefits from a local port plan, MILA keeps crediting you hours. Per the SPD, the weekly rate depends on the plan you qualified for the year before:

Core: 14 hours a week, up to 700 a contract year
Basic: 20 hours a week, up to 1,000
Premier: 26 hours a week, up to 1,300
Super Tier: 40 hours a week, up to 2,000 (2025 seminar materials)

The SPD limits disability credit to "24 months per illness or injury (this is not a lifetime limit)." One catch from the SPD's examples: if you're disabled before you're covered by MILA at all, you don't get disability hours for the rest of that contract year.

The SPD also covers military service under USERRA and says that during FMLA leave your employer pays contributions "as if you are working" to keep your eligibility.

What the documents don't say

None of the MILA documents we have spell out which hour types count as "credited hours." The SPD defines a credited hour by contributions: in its example, if your employer paid MILA half the master contract's MILA contribution per hour, you got one credited hour for every two hours worked. It does not list holidays, vacation, guarantee hours or union business one way or the other. If that matters for your year, ask MILA or your port's benefit office.

The documents also don't list which ports run their own local health plan in place of MILA. If you're not sure your port is in MILA, ask your local or your port's benefit office. And if your hours are close to a line, call the MILA office before September 30, not after.

Retirees are a different test

Retiree coverage isn't hours. The SPD bases it on "your length of service in the industry when you retire, your age at retirement, the type of retirement you elect, and your eligibility to enroll in Medicare." For example, the SPD chart puts Premier at age 62 with 25 or more years of credited service. That's a post of its own.

How DockBook tracks it

DockBook's MILA Health tracker counts your logged hours on the October contract year and shows which tier your hours reach and how far you are from the next one. It's part of DockBook Pro for ILA members. It's an estimate built from what you log. MILA decides your coverage from what your employers report, so if the app and your MILA statement disagree, the statement is what counts, and the gap is worth a phone call.

More on how ILA pay and funds work: why ILA pay is different port to port, how Container Royalty qualification works, and DockBook for ILA members.