Taft-Hartley Trust Funds are plans established under section 302 of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. Each fund is formed as a result of a collective bargaining agreement. These plans are also referred to multi-employers funds, Taft-Hartley trusts, joint trusts, jointly trusted plans, ERISA trust funds and labor-management employees benefit plans. They have one important common feature; they are administered by boards of trustees on which labor and management are equally represented.

Jointly trusted plans are common when a group of employers, usually in the same industry, join together with the unions with which they have bargaining agreements, to establish a multi-employer trust. Jointly trusted plans are common in the construction industry (bricklayers, electricians, and laborers), retail industry (united food and commercial workers) and the trucking and warehouse industry (teamsters).

The Trustees of the plans are charged with determining what types of benefits will be included in the plan. Payments of these benefits are made from a trust which is funded by employer contributions established through negotiations. Funding also comes from income through investments made with the assets of the trust.

Contributions are made by each employer in the fund on behalf of each of its covered employees.