Just in time for the first quarter 2010 dues bills going out next week, the Animation Guild is offering members a way to pay their dues and fees without having to write checks or pay postage or a processing fee. Just go online to http://www.animationguild.org/payments and click on the button to connect to our online payment system, hosted by Union Bank.
You can make single payments to post by the next business day or for up to ninety days in advance, or you can set up recurring payments for up to a year. Whether or not you sign up for the system, you will continue to receive bills by U.S. Mail as you have in the past, and you can continue to send in checks or money orders by U.S. Mail; you can also pay cash in person during our office hours (Monday-Friday 8:30 am-5 pm).
Contact Lyn Mantta at lyn@animationguild.org or (818) 845-7500 ext. 105 if you have any questions about this system.
Posts
22 comments:
Oh good. A more efficient way for us to pay dues/initiation fees that do absolutely nothing.
Yeah yeah, I know you'll have some witty quip about how relevant the union is, but rest assured, I wont care.
I for one am glad to no longer need to write and mail checks. Yay!
i will gladly continue to pay dues as long as I can keep getting high off the ink from TAGS perforated carbon-printed billing statements. what is not to love?
Oh good. A more efficient way for us to pay dues/initiation fees that do absolutely nothing.
Yeah yeah, I know you'll have some witty quip about how relevant the union is, but rest assured, I wont care.
Aww, poor you.
Why don't you go fi-core, so you can avoid those exhorbitant dues? Better yet, you could get that higher paying non-union job, with all those better benefits!
Or I guess you could just continue coming to the union blog to gripe and whine.
Actually, I did just that, and I do get paid more.
So, tell me again what EXACTLY the union did for me?
Great news! Some of us were just complaining about when TAG would accept online auto-pay for dues.
(I know, I know. TAG members complaining? Hard to believe...)
Question-
>If, in addition, you want to keep your union card up-to-date, you'll need to mail it to the Guild office at the address below whenever you make a payment.
I've never once had to show my union card anywhere. Is there any actual reason anyone would want to keep their up-to-date union card?
Thanks for setting this up!
Your union card is your official receipt of payment, which we're obligated to give you under the IA Constitution. So it's entirely up to you if you want to keep it up-to-date, or save yourself (and us) the 44¢.
Actually, I did just that, and I do get paid more.
So, tell me again what EXACTLY the union did for me?
Then why were you complaining about having to pay union dues--either online or otherwise?
Moreover, if you no longer work at a union studio, why do you hang out at the union blog, pissing in everyone's drink?
Welcome to the 20th century.
Moreover, if you no longer work at a union studio, why do you hang out at the union blog, pissing in everyone's drink?
Because...they don't have a life?
Actually, I did just that [work at non-union studio], and I do get paid more.
So, tell me again what EXACTLY the union did for me?
As noted above, the union shouldn't be in your wheel house, anon.
You have no reason to pay dues because, as you say, we're doing nothing for you.
So I guess I share the confusion of others up above. If you're working non-union and paying no dues, why do you post complaints about it?
It's like me complaining about gay marriage. I'm not involved with it one way or the other, so I really don't care.
Here ...Here, Steve! ...I agree with you as someone who's been in the biz for twenty years I may not always agree with Union policy but, I'm glad it's there. And that I will have a pension and health benefits !!!
Because Ive dumped over 6-7 grand in my career to the union, and it has literally done me no good. Ill never see a pension, I coulda had benefits without it, and my pay is higher elsewhere. Yes, Im bitter, because the union is antiquated.
I still follow this board because it discusses the industry I work in, though I no longer work at a union shop.
I guess my opinion doesnt matter, and the union is wonderful. Whatever.
Because Ive dumped over 6-7 grand in my career to the union, and it has literally done me no good. Ill never see a pension,
Hmmm, okay, I'll ignore the vitriol, and take a look at your numbers. Let's assume you've paid $7000 to the union, in initiation fee and dues. To get to that number, you'd have to pay dues for many years, since the maximum initiation fee today would be around $3000 (based on current salary minimums), and the maximum yearly dues are around $400, so at today's minimums you'd have to work at least 10 full years to hit 7 grand.
But then, 10 years ago the minimum salaries were significantly less, which means the initiation fee would have been significantly less (as well as the dues), and so my ball park guess is you worked at least 15 years at union studios to hit $7000 in dues/initiation fee.
What does one get for 15 years at union studios? The Individual Account Plan of the pension vests after 1 qualified year, so you'd have 15 years of IAP contributions awaiting you in a lump sum at retirement (and that lump sum continues to grow while you work towards retirement).
The Defined Benefit Plan vests after 5 years, so you'd have a tasty monthly retirement benefit awaiting you, too.
If you indeed got 15 years of union work, you'd also have retirement health benefits awaiting your retirement.
You also would have collected severance pay every time you were laid off during those 15 years, but maybe you did it all at one employer and only collected it once.
The only way you won't see a pension from your years in TAG is if you don't bother to apply for it at retirement.
Because Ive dumped over 6-7 grand in my career to the union, and it has literally done me no good. Ill never see a pension, I coulda had benefits without it, and my pay is higher elsewhere. Yes, Im bitter, because the union is antiquated.
During part of that career, you were receiving Motion Picture Indusry Health coverage.
During part of that career, you were most likely accumulating funds in the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan's Individual Account Plan, funds which are probably vested.
(I can't say for sure because I don't know when you were working at union shops ... but it had to be for a stretch if you paid four thousand in dues. It takes ten forty-hour weeks to qualify for the Individual Account Plan.
http://www.mpiphp.org/benefits/pension_iap/pensioniap.htm
So you could have several thousand dollars sitting in it, money which will be YOURS when you reach retirement age. You can always call (818) 769-0007 ext. 627 to find out.
And you're welcome.
I see, it didn't work out for you.
In my personal situation, I have absolute verifiable proof that if my studio weren't in the union, I'd be getting paid 30% less right now. And so would a lot of my co-workers.
So, while it (maybe) didn't seem to work out for you, it's working out for many others.
"So tell me again what EXACTLY the union did for me?"
Well, for one thing, the guaranteed minimum wages set forth in the union contract at least gave you an idea how much more you could get paid at your new job. Otherwise you'd probably be lucky to be getting $8 an hour.
The dues and initiation fees are tax deductible. They're the price of admission to an organization commonly referred to as the IA, short for IATSE which stands for the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees. I won't list everything here, but if you'll go to this Wikipedia link, it'll show you how many other categories of artists and workers belong to the IA just in Los Angeles. The link also has a menu for other areas of the country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IATSE_locals.
The IA has over 30,000 members and, collectively, carry more clout than one individual who thinks getting more money at a non-union shop is worth more than the long-term benefits of union solidarity. The IA consists of approximately 418 regional unions (or Locals, of which The Animation Guild, Local 839 is but one) and the dues from all those locals provide tremendous benefits for its members.
For example:
Let's say you pay $400 per year in dues. After 40 years you'll have paid $16,000 in tax deductible union dues. What would you get for that in return?
If I retired today I'd get an IAP (Individual Account Plan) payment of about $100,000. I'd get a monthly pension payment of about $2,000. Between Medicare and the Industry Health Plan my spouse and I would have medical coverage for life.
And over that 40-year period of guaranteed minimum wages I'd have gotten 400 paid holidays, 80 weeks paid vacation, a pretty decent 401k nest egg, and a whole bunch of friends. Not a bad return on that investment of dues.
How does that compare to your benefit package?
The guy is a troll. Don't even bother dealing with him. His numbers don't add up, and he couldn't decide in his first post whether he was actually paying union dues or not. My guess is he's just a bullshitter yanking everyone's chain to get a reaction, which by all accounts, he has.
It's amazing the complete disregard I get when I try to convince people that joining the guild would be better for them.
I present the same set of facts like Kevin did above and it just doesn't get through to them.
Sometimes I wonder if Americans simply accept the notion that work has to be hell and anything otherwise is too good to be true.
Maybe he's been asking politely what the union does for him and no one has responded, haha.
Nothing like a little attitude to get people responding, eh?
Both Kevin and Steve responded politely to him, with real numbers.
What the union does, for him and others, has been explained well. If you still claim the union "did nothing", then you're too uneducated to understand.
Notice how the disgruntled ex-TAG member was very quick to respond with snarky, dismissive comments, but disappeared when faced with facts. Kinda looks like he or she really was just an anti-union troll who was making shite up.
Typical.
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