MARK IT OR MISS IT!

Deadlines, like gravity, don’t negotiate. The Summary Plan Description (SPD) spelled it out and so have we (repeatedly). And now, one more time for good measure:

đź“… Tuesday, September 30 @ 4:30 PM
đź“… Wednesday, December 31 @ 12:00 PM

I’ll stop flipping breakers here and wire this straight to what matters: 196 of you already know your second-quarter hours weren’t enough to secure Health & Benefit Plan coverage for the fourth quarter. How do you know? Because your paystubs and work journals have been quietly shouting that truth for months

And if there’s a bright side—and yes, shockingly, there is—it’s this:

  1. Figuring out what you may owe isn’t some mysterious puzzle—it’s gloriously boring math, which, paradoxically, is the most exciting kind because it puts you in control.
  2. By the time those dates arrive, the Fund will have broadcast these deadlines for 94 and 184 days—luxury communication the kind usually reserved for weddings and solar eclipses. And,
  3. Consider this your “third newsletter, same message” alert: short on hours? Pay by the deadline, or your Q4 2025 / Q1 2026 coverage will vanish faster than free donuts in the breakroom.

Miss the deadlines? Enter C.O.B.R.A.—the wildly less fun, more expensive, beyond dramatic, and in this scenerio, utterly avoidable alternative to remain covered under the Plan.

Don’t know what C.O.B.R.A. is? Perfect. That means you’re about to learn something useful. You start by checking your SPD and looking for —brace yourself—C.O.B.R.A.

Didn’t find it? Shocker—that’s most likely due to the fact that you didn’t actually look.

Fun fact: the Health & Benefits SPD is arranged alphabetically. So, if you know your ABCs—and have even a shred of curiosity or self-preservation—you can uncover everything from when your eligibility kicks in to when those dreaded shortage-of-hours payments are due. Or, if you’re not in the mood for an educational scavenger hunt, just click “C.O.B.R.A.” in the table of contents and skip the drama. Seriously, it’s like reading the map instead of wandering the desert.