SAG-AFTRA Members Ratify TV Animation Contracts

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David Robb Labor EditorEXCLUSIVE: SAG-AFTRA has told Hollywood’s talent agents that return-to-work talks with management’s AMPTP have stalled because the companies are refusing to spring for COVID-19 quarantine pay for series regulars and other film and TV performers.The union held what was billed as an “emergency” Zoom meeting with agents Saturday to discuss the issue.

David Robb Labor EditorSAG-AFTRA is protesting Saturday’s arrest of KPCC reporter Josie Huang while she was covering the arrest of a protester outside St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, where two LA County Sheriff’s deputies were being treated after being shot in their squad car by an as yet unidentified assailant.

David Robb Labor EditorAs negotiations between labor and management enter the home stretch for a final return-to-work agreement, SAG-AFTRA has issued a set of questions and answers about the “Safe Way Forward” protocols established by the industry’s unions and guilds on June 12 – including four of the issues that are still outstanding in their ongoing talks with management’s Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.“As the industry makes slow progress to reopening, SAG-AFTRA members

Hilary Swank is suing the board of trustees of the SAG-AFTRA health plan. In an Instagram post on Wednesday, the 46-year-old actress revealed that she's taken the legal step because she's «truly exhausted by the way women’s ovarian and cyclical health issues continue to be treated by healthcare insurance companies.»«I have experienced it in my own life, and I continually read about it across social media and in the press,» she wrote.

Hilary Swank is suing the SAG/AFTRA Health Plan after being denied coverage for the treatment of ovarian cysts.

Hilary Swank has filed a lawsuit against the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan for allegedly denying her coverage for the treatment of ovarian cysts.

David Robb Labor EditorThe SAG-AFTRA Health Plan will be offering an 80% reduction in COBRA premiums for many participants who no will longer qualify for coverage starting October 1.Facing staggering deficits due to skyrocketing health care costs, the Plan announced last month that it will be raising premiums and earnings thresholds beginning January 1.

Hilary Swank has made a decision to seek legal action and sue SAG-AFTRA’s Health Plan.

Dave McNary Film ReporterFacing a barrage of criticism over eligibility cuts, the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan has announced it will be offering an 80% reduction in COBRA premiums for many participants who will no longer qualify for coverage starting Oct. 1More than 17,000 people have asked trustees of the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan to overturn recently announced changes that will cut eligibility for the plan on Jan.

Also Read: 'We Are Being Left Behind': Retired Hollywood Actors Protest Changes to SAG-AFTRA Health PlanIn the lawsuit, Hilary Swank says she has dealt with ovarian cysts and endometriosis since 2008 and had treatment covered under the SAG Health Plan. Following the SAG-AFTRA merger in 2012, Swank was transferred onto the new health plan that continued to cover her treatment until 2015, when she says the trustees pulled her coverage.

David Robb Labor EditorHilary Swank has filed a lawsuit against the trustees of the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan, asking a federal judge to order the trustees to resume coverage of her treatment for recurrent malignant ovarian cysts, which have afflicted the two-time Oscar-winning actress for more than 11 years.Her lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in U.S.

In a statement, the guild said the new deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers passed by a vote of 87.68% to 12.32% and will apply retroactively to July 1, 2020.

David Robb Labor EditorSAG-AFTRA members have voted overwhelmingly – 87.68% to 12.32% – to ratify a new TV animation contract covering network, basic cable and streaming shows.Animation, and the voice-over work provided by actors, is one of the few sectors of the entertainment industry that didn’t grind to a halt during the coronavirus shutdown. The terms of the new three-year pact, which had been unanimously approved by the union’s executive committee, are retroactive to July 1, 2020.

David Robb Labor EditorSAG-AFTRA Foundation president Courtney B. Vance paid tribute to Chadwick Boseman in his latest fireside chat, reposting a laugh-filled Q&A with cast members and director of Marshall, the 2017 film in which Boseman portrayed famed civil rights leader and Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall.In the Q&A, Boseman, who died Friday at 43, recalled getting his SAG card for a role on Law & Order.

David Robb Labor EditorSAG-AFTRA Health Plan CEO Michael Estrada on Tuesday described the “perfect storm” of soaring health care costs, employer contributions to the plan that have failed to keep up with those costs, and the devastating impact of the coronavirus shutdown on those contributions that made a complete overhaul necessary to keep the plan from going broke by 2024.Changes to the plan, which include increased eligibility thresholds for many, and higher premiums for all, will go into

David Robb Labor EditorOpponents of changes coming to the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan said tonight they are considering legal action to prevent thousands of participants and their family members from losing their health coverage when the sweeping changes take effect on Jan. 1, 2021.“We have been talking to lawyers.

An unofficial Zoom meeting hosted by the SAG-AFTRA opposition faction Aug. 14 drew nearly 500 participants in a visceral display of fear and fury as dozens spoke out against a restructuring of the union’s affiliated health plan that will hike premiums and tighten eligibility.

Elaine Low Senior TV WriterHeather Jones feels “lost, tired and hopeless.” Work has been slow for her and her husband, both actors, since the coronavirus pandemic shut down film and television production five months ago. Last December, their 4-year-old son Harmon completed a series of surgeries, chemo and radiation for alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer, and is now undergoing physical therapy as well as routine MRIs, CT scans and bloodwork in the aftermath.