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SAG-AFTRA Health Plan Sued Over Benefit Cuts for Seniors


from VARIETY:

The SAG-AFTRA Health Plan and its trustees have been sued in federal court by Ed Asner and nine other senior participants over the upcoming cuts in benefits and eligibility for the plan.

Asner, a six-time Emmy winner, is the lead plaintiff in the class action complaint, which was filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles. The suit alleges two counts of breach of fiduciary duty, one count of engaging in a prohibited transaction and one count of failing to disclose information material to plan participants.

The suit said the 91-year-old Asner, a former SAG president and current member of the SAG-AFTRA national board, will lose his coverage, even though he had more than $25,950 in yearly covered earnings with residuals and sessional earnings because he will not reach the new qualifying threshold by sessional earnings.

Read MORE at VARIETY

FilmLA Quickly Rescinded New Limits On After-Hours Filming In LA

FilmLA Explains Why It Quickly Rescinded New Limits On After-Hours Filming In Los Angeles – Update
By David Robb at DEADLINE

November 25, 2020 2:55pm
Without explaining its reasoning, the film-permitting office just issued this statement:

“Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles have advised FilmLA that filming will not be restricted to the hours between 5 a.m. / 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., as previously announced. Filmmakers are highly encouraged to stay within those limits, if feasible, and be mindful of community impact while California’s Limited Stay at Home Order is in effect. Today’s original Production Alert is hereby withdrawn. This notice will be removed from the FilmLA website on 11/27/20.”

Reached by Deadline today, Dr. Muntu Davis, L.A. County’s health officer — the person who actually signs health-closure orders — said of FilmLA’s original order: “As far as we have discussed, we mirror the state’s order on that. I don’t know where that’s coming from.”

READ MORE at DEADLINE

 

Hollywood Grapples With Mass Layoffs


Nov 25, 2020 7:00am PT :  By Cynthia Littleton at Variety

This is the winter of discontent for Hollywood workers, as no level of seniority has been spared from the wave of mass layoffs.

Warner Bros. has been shaken by two rounds of layoffs and a wholesale restructuring that have ushered out veterans with decades of service to the Hollywood studio.

NBCUniversal has rewired the structure of its TV content production and distribution operations, leading to hundreds of job cuts. ViacomCBS has periodically shed bodies by the dozens in the year since its two halves formally tied the knot again in December 2019. AMC Networks last week disclosed it will let go of 10% of its U.S. workforce, or about 100 staffers.

Discovery Inc., Sony Pictures and Lionsgate have also let sizable numbers of staffers go in 2020.

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Stuntplayers on ‘The Walking Dead’ Win Pay For Reuse Of Stunt Clips

from David Robb

SAG-AFTRA has won an arbitration and confidential settlement with the producers of The Walking Dead over compensation due to stunt performers for the reuse of clips from the show in which they appeared. Some of those stunt personnel are unidentifiable in the clips, however, and the union is asking the stunt community for help in identifying them so that they can be paid.

SAG-AFTRA and the show’s producer reached the confidential settlement agreement based on an audit of scenes reused in the “In Memoriam” segment of Talking Dead from February 29, 2016, through the present. The union says its auditors discovered and reviewed reused clips that contained identifiable stunts and performers, noting that all of the stunt performers identified in the clips are being compensated at their day pay rates plus late payments for each clip. Under terms of the agreement, individual checks will be sent to SAG-AFTRA on or before November 20, and after verification that the full amount has been paid, the union will mail the checks to the performers.

READ MORE at DEADLINE

Gabrielle Carteris’ Politics Put Stunt Players’ Lives in Jeopardy

SAGaftra Freddie Mercury Ripoff Logo

from Dave Robb’s article at DEADLINE:

SAG-AFTRA’s national board, at a contentious meeting tonight, passed a resolution to form a task force to “investigate and address” issues involving “paint-downs” and “wigging.” The motion was brought to the board by SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris.

The move, which was opposed by five stunt performers serving on the board, comes after dozens of stuntmen and women signed a letter sent Sept. 30 to the leadership of SAG-AFTRA calling for an end to “wigging” – the age-old practice of putting wigs and dresses on stuntmen so they can double for actresses – and “paint-downs,” in which dark make-up is applied to white stunt performers so that they can double for actors of color.

The resolution was opposed on procedural grounds by many members of the union’s main opposition group, Membership First, and by all five stunt performers serving on the board, who argued that safety should always be the first priority, and that the resolution could tie the hands of stunt coordinators in their hiring decisions, which could lead to more on-set accidents and injuries. “Every stunt person on the national board voted against it,” said board member and stuntman Peter Antico. “This referendum was not on the agenda, and they wasted three hours of the meeting giving us hearsay without any substantiation evidence of anything that they were saying. The stunt community is against racist practices and paint downs, but safety must always come before diversity. We proposed an amendment to include all stunt people on the Task Force who serve on the local and national boards, and it was turned down by people who know nothing about the stunt business.”

“Most of Membership First abstained,” said a source familiar with last night’s meeting. “The reason why was for process reasons. Everyone in Membership First is against paint downs and wigging. They find the process abhorrent. The problem was that Gabrielle never consulted any of the stunt people on the board. That’s why they’re there, because there are other issues at play – mainly safety. We have to find a way for everyone to have fair and equal access to work. Membership First didn’t want to block the Task Force, but they’re sick and tired of Gabrielle excluding certain people for political expediency.”

READ MORE at DEADLINE

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