Happy Summer from Houston-Austin SAG-AFTRA

Dee Dawson
SAG-AFTRA National Board

It is said that good things come to those who wait. But when it come to residuals processing, the good news is that now there's a whole lot less waiting. In April, National Executive Director David White announced that the union had reduced its residual processing time from 90 or more days to just 30 days. SAG-AFTRA receives and must process several million residual checks every year for the membership — a huge undertaking. This is a great achievement by your union to get members’ money into members’ hands faster and more reliably.

The other piece of great news is that the SAG Health Plan Trustees announced that beginning July 1, SAG-AFTRA will begin offering combined earning eligibility (reciprocity). Members with earnings under SAG-AFTRA contracts who do not qualify for health coverage under either the AFTRA or the SAG health plans may be able to combine their earnings reportable to each plan in order to meet the dollar earnings requirement for Plan II eligibility (currently $15,100). This means that beginning with the base earnings period of April 2013 through March 31, 2014, earnings reported to both plans may under certain circumstances be combined to meet the dollar threshold to qualify for Plan II under the SAG Health Plan. Trustees for the health plans for legacy SAG and legacy AFTRA are studying merger of the health plans.

The TV/Theatrical negotiations are currently taking place. Negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) commenced on May 5 at AMPTP headquarters in Sherman Oaks, California. SAG-AFTRA President Ken Howard is chairing the TV/Theatrical contracts negotiations and SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director David White is the union’s chief negotiator. There is a media blackout until the negotiations are settled.

Have a great summer and break a leg out there!

This item was originally featured in the July 2014 local newsletter.