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CONCERNED SAG-AFTRA MEMBERS FILE CLASS ACTION AGAINST: THE TRUSTEES OF THE SCREEN ACTORS GUILD-PRODUCERS HEALTH PLAN AND THE TRUSTEES OF THE SAG-AFTRA HEALTH FUND  

 
Los Angeles, CA… December 1, 2020… Members of the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), today filed a class action lawsuit against their Health Plan Trustees for compromising and eliminating medical coverage for Plan Participants and their families. SAG-AFTRA is an American labor union representing approximately 160,000 film and television actors, stand-ins, journalists, radio personalities, recording artists, singers, voice actors, dancers, stunt-performers, background-performers, and other media professionals worldwide.

SAG-AFTRA Members were shocked to learn on August 12, 2020 that their Health Plan Trustees announced drastic and discriminatory cuts to the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan that eliminated promised health coverage for thousands of senior SAG-AFTRA members. The Trustees announced these cuts during a pandemic, an Industry shutdown, and an economic crisis with full knowledge that Members - particularly senior members - would have little opportunity to find the session work necessary to meet the new arbitrary and discriminatory standards for continued coverage. After months of research, SAG-AFTRA Members and their legal team determined that filing the lawsuit was a necessary step toward restoring medical coverage to Plan Participants.

The Trustees announced these draconian cuts even though they assured Plan Members that their medical benefits would remain in place. Indeed, in connection with the merger of the SAG and AFTRA health plans in 2017, the Trustees promised members that the combined plan would be “financially sustainable for all members for years to come” and would “strengthen the overall financial health of the plan while ensuring comprehensive benefits for all participants.”

The Health Plan Trustees knew for at least two years that the Plan was in trouble. When the Plan started losing money, rather than making incremental adjustments to better prepare the Participants and negotiate more contributions into the Health Plan, the Trustees shocked members with cuts, increased qualifiers, increased premiums and discriminatory actions.  

Never once within these two years did the staff or member Trustees of the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan notify the negotiating committees or the SAG-AFTRA National Board regarding the extent of the Plan’s peril. 

1.     There were three major contracts negotiated in the last two years valued at billions of dollars annually (2019 Commercials, 2019 Netflix, and the 2020 TV/Theatrical contracts) that could have directed more money into the Health Plan.   

2.     Most egregious of all, some of the 20 Union Health Plan Trustees and many of the 20 Management Health Plan Trustees were also negotiators on the most recent TV/Theatrical and Commercials contracts. It’s not just that the Trustees knew, they were actually part of the process.  

3.      Other members of the negotiating committees are on record saying they would have approached these negotiations differently had they known this information.    

4.       An increase of up to $54 million in additional funding for the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan was “a great achievement,” members were told, however, they were never told that the $54 million was nowhere near enough to sustain the Health Plan.

A copy of the complaint can be viewed here. Read The Complaint Here 

A video with messages from rank and file to prominent SAG-AFTRA members can be viewed at https://twitter.com/Eleven_Films/status/1333849149163204610    

An article about the lawsuit by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Senior Financial Reporter; NBC News Investigations Gretchen Morgenson can be accessed here 

“For SAG-AFTRA Members over 65 taking their pensions, residuals will no longer count as earnings. These same members will have contributions made into the Plan on those earnings. These same members will continue to pay dues and taxes on them. It is unacceptable that only members who are 65+ and taking their pensions, will not have residuals count towards their earnings. Not applying those residual contributions to senior pensioners is tantamount to stealing,” said David Jolliffe, SAG-AFTRA National Board Member, 2nd VP Los Angeles.

“Our seniors built our Union, and we stand on their shoulders. All performers prior to 1960 gave away their movie residuals in television in order to start SAG’s Health and Pension Plan, at great personal sacrifice. It is unacceptable that now these senior performers will take a double hit and will lose their senior SAG-AFTRA Health coverage,” said Frances Fisher, SAG-AFTRA National Board Member, 1st VP Los Angeles.


The Health Plan is funded by SAG-AFTRA Members’ work. The Members, in order to fund this Plan, have sacrificed:

·         Wage increases

·         Residual increases

·         Working conditions

SAG-AFTRA Members must hold those in charge accountable. They are called, “Trustees” for a reason. Members put their trust in them. They have broken that trust. It is now up to the Members to fix what has been broken.

For additional information, please visit SOSHealthPlan