SAG-AFTRA President's Update

Dear Member,

I hope you are staying safe and healthy. I wanted to update you on crucial work and progress we are making as a union during the pandemic.

We all want to get back to work as quickly and as safely as possible. When filming resumes, we have to make sure we can do our jobs in a way that protects the health and well-being of all of us.

The SAG-AFTRA Blue Ribbon Commission on Safety is coordinating the best thinking and practices from epidemiologists, labor relations, and industrial sanitation and external safety experts. These efforts help ensure all our members — working in front of the camera and behind the microphone — go back at the right time and to safe workplaces.

Our advocacy doesn’t end there. Along with our allied unions and guilds, we are urging legislative action on key state and federal issues, including:

• Pushing to make sure members who have W-2 and 1099 income (so-called “mixed income”) can use the combined total to access maximum unemployment benefits;
• Fighting for the stability and funding of our defined benefit pensions; and
• Urging 36-month eligibility for, and 100% subsidizing of, COBRA benefits.

Your dues support makes all of this work possible, especially now, when we are all confronting an unprecedented global crisis. If you are in a position to fully pay your May semi-annual dues, please do so. This enhances our ability to give dues payment extensions to members experiencing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For members facing economic hardship, they will be able to pay in two installments without the penalty of late fees or any adverse impact on their ability to work.

Lastly, if you are financially able to do so, please consider donating your smaller residual payments to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation through our new direct deposit donation program. Donating provides crucial funding for SAG-AFTRA Foundation emergency relief programs that help our fellow members in need. Check out the very short video below that explains the process. Remember, if you need help, ask. If you can help, give.

Our unity and solidarity — as SAG-AFTRA members and in collaboration with our sister unions and industry allies — is an important catalyst that will help us get through this together.

Strength in unity,

Gabrielle Carteris