TAG, like any good little labor organization, is interested in organizing new studios that haven't seen fit to sign our collective bargaining agreement. This isn't always easy, because studios working without benefit of contract often like to stay that way.
We are currently working to organize an animation facility that isn't keen to be part of our club. As we always do, we've phoned employees, written employees. Happily, it hasn't just been me sending the letters. One of our executive board members, K.C. Johnson, wrote an eloquent missive about what becoming part of the union has meant to her and what she hopes it will mean to others. We share a large part of it below:
... I’m writing today to ask you to vote “Yes” for The Animation Guild. No one’s asked me to write this letter. I am on the Guild’s Executive Board, and have thus heard about the current union drive. I’m writing because I know from my own experience that a unionized [cartoon studio] would greatly benefit you as a working artist and member of the wider animation community. ... I‘d like to share some information you may not know, and ask you to think about some serious questions.
Residuals
Although they don’t arrive in our mailboxes like the Writer’s Guild, we as artists do earn residuals. The studios pay them directly into our Health and Pension Plan, along with the residuals of all the other IATSE guilds (i.e. grips, art directors, etc.). Count how many times episodes of [your studio's shows] have aired in first run and reruns. You are paid for that … if you’re receiving Motion Picture benefits. If you’re not receiving these benefits, who gets the money? Not [your studio], and not you. You forfeit them completely.
Health Plan
Since most of you will soon be transitioning off of the Motion Picture health plan, I think you’re familiar with it. But my husband is a freelance comic book artist with no benefits. We had a baby in 2008 that cost us a total of $130 out of pocket -- for everything, including the delivery. Now, all three of us are covered for a premium of ... $0 a year. With $5 co-pays for doctor’s visits at the Motion Picture clinic.
Don’t forget about the portability. Will you be at [your current studio] forever? Imagine no loss of coverage through hiatus, between jobs, for even up to a year and a half! With that $0 annual premium. COBRA premiums can run from $400 to over $900 a month.
Pension
The Animation Guild has three pieces to its pension plan.
1. 401(k): Voluntary. Use it or don’t use it. It includes Vanguard funds, which are very good.
2. Pension: Requires ... zero effort on your part, and zero dollars out of your paycheck. Studios contribute for you for every hour you work. For me, as of December 2009, my 7 years at union shops have already guaranteed me over $450 a month when I retire. How does [your studio’s] pension compare? Additionally, when you reach the 15-year mark, you earn Motion Picture health plan benefits throughout retirement. I’ve been watching my 66-year-old (now retired) mom manage my 98-year-old grandmother’s care for quite some years. If you think having a good health plan now is important... just wait.
Here’s a very important detail: you are not vested until you’ve earned five years. If you stop working at union shops and have less than five years, you could lose the credit towards your vesting and have to start over. Do you know how many years you have vested now? [Call MPIPHP to find out the answer: (818) 769-0007, extension 627.] Having [your place of work] as a union studio would help to steer you towards vesting, not away from it.
3. Individual Account Plan (IAP): Requires ... zero effort on your part, and zero dollars out of your paycheck. It just accumulates, same as your pension. And unlike the pension, it vests after only one year! As of December 2009, with only 7 years, my IAP has over $27,000 in it. I get all of it when I retire, and it grows with every hour I work at a union shop. This is real money we’re talking about here (Twenty. Seven. Grand.), and it only costs the studios pennies per hour, per person. Like buying some cans of soda per artist per day. Is [your studio] helping you save for retirement, or are they just providing the soda? ...
Bento Box
I was at Film Roman when we went union (with some of you), and experienced the same fear and guilt you’re likely subject to now. Plenty of “We can’t afford it!” and “Why would you do that to us, we’re family!” and the like.
Our top brass at the time included John Hyde, Mike Wolf, and Scott Greenberg, all of whom fought hard against the guild. Now, two of them, John Hyde and Scott Greenberg, have started up a new production studio, which is now union. They came to us. If their experience with The Animation Guild was so awful, the purported enforced accountability and loss of control so terrible, why would they voluntarily knock on our door and say “sign us up”?
A Union is Only as Strong as Its Members
I’ve heard it said “We have the weakest effing union.” And it’s true that our union is a quiet one. You won’t see our dramas and arguments splashed across the front page of Variety. But we are only as strong as our members. And quite honestly, most animators don’t want to create trouble and they don’t want to strike. They’re content when they can come in, do their work, get the job done well, and go home. That’s what the Guild helps to facilitate.
Did you hear that [Studio X] last year seriously considered eliminating sick days? Our union sure helped to make that idea disappear fast. Our guild doesn't brag about its successes, and maybe that's a mistake. But, what you need to ask yourself is, will allowing [your studio] to remain non-union help to make your guild any stronger?
Your Peers Need You
This current drive to unionize [your studio] started from within. Your colleagues are behind this push. The Animation Guild cannot represent a studio unless the artists choose to let it.
And perhaps this is not a big deal for you. Maybe your spouse has good medical benefits and/or you already have ample retirement savings. Maybe you can stand to benefit, but it’s not a big deal.
…What about your colleague one or two cubicles down? This matters to them. It matters enough for them to fight hard for this. You may be on the fence, but for some of your peers these are major, major issues, and they need you to be on their side.
Vote “YES”
I hope you’re still with me, reading, this far. It’s just hard to convey how important it is that we have a union, and how much sweat and passion the artists before us put into creating it. You are in the unique position to help push the boundaries, and secure some really vital benefits and protections for yourself.
When Film Roman went union in something like season 16 of “The Simpsons”, I saw the faces of the longtime crew turn ashen when they realized, “If we had been union this whole time, we’d have 16 years in and have secured health benefits through retirement. We’d be there, and now, we have to start from scratch.”
Making [your studio] into a union shop is not a betrayal of your employment there. Nor is it a nail in the coffin. A unionized Film Roman is doing just fine. So is Nickelodeon… Cartoon Network… Warner Brothers… Disney… Adelaide… DreamWorks… Fox Animation… you get the idea. The animation business is ebb and flow. If a studio’s going to go under, it will be due to poor management, not unionized artists.
At the end of the day, if you remember anything, remember that [your studio] is a business. That fact motivates all of their actions. [They'll] look out for themselves ...
The Animation Guild’s sole purpose is to look out for you. No one else is doing that.
Please vote “YES” in the upcoming election. You don’t need to say anything at the studio, stick your head out, wave a union flag, nothing. Do your work, and when it comes time, vote “yes”.
If you’d like my help or assistance in any way, I’m there. My biggest motivation for being on the Executive Board is to help improve the Guild’s service to its members. I invite you to call me with any questions or concerns you‘d like to discuss.
Thanks for your time, and I hope you‘ll decide to let the Guild support you by representing your interests.
I'll add my two cents to what Ms. Johnson says above: Over the last seventy years entertainment companies -- and many of their employees -- have thrived under unionization. Motion pictures and television shows are one of the United States' more profitable exports, narrowing the trade gap and providing thousands of jobs. I've seen a number of animation studios fade out of existence in the course of my career; I've yet to see any disappear because they were unionized. Bad management was always the culprit.
Unions, as I've said before, are not the end-all and be-all. But they help spread a little of the money around to people who need it a bit more than the fifty-million-dollar-a-year chieftans who sit at the top of the Hollywood pyramid. And that, to my mind, is a good thing.
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There were tax breaks involved with keeping the work in town and UNDER Union Contract ?????????????
Would you mind pointing out specifically what the hell you are talking about?
Many thanks.
Tax Breaks. What companies get for sending their work out of state or overseas. What if they were given taxbreaks for employing organized local labor as opposed to trying to get away without it. Wouldnt that make your job easier? And dont hell me. I might not know enuf of what I am talking about, but I learn slowly. Aint that how you bekumd wise?
Like most public pensions in California and in the US, our current pension is described as underfunded and at risk. What will happen to the money that is collected on my behalf should this become an irreversible trend over the next ten to fifteen years? Am I able to recoup those funds? Do I have any recourse with the union to regain control of money that has my name on it?
Specifically, from April's MPIPHP newletter
"As of January 1, 2009, the Plan was in endangered status because the Plan’s funding percentage was below 80 percent. As stated, a plan determined to be in endangered status has to adopt a funding
improvement plan. However, in response to the 2008 stock market decline, Congress enacted a new law providing that a multi-employer plan may elect to temporarily freeze its funding status for
2009 so that it remains the same as the Plan’s 2008 funding status, which was neither critical nor endangered. The Plan made this election and was consequently not required to adopt a funding improvement plan during
the 2009 Plan Year."
What I mean is, taking into account the legal acrobatics that government and corporations do with accounting law, how am I to know if my pension is solvent when the bailouts end? Or is this just a case of trusting bank statements?
The funding of the MPIPHP (Motion Picture Pension Plan) currently stands at 75%. It's projected to rise to 84.5% in 2015.
THE Individual Account Plan is a separately funded pension plan that rises and falls based on its underlying investments.
The IAP fell 15% during the 2008-2009 meltdown, far less than most people's IRAs or Target Funds inside 401(k)s.
Social Security sit on a huge surplus of bonds that the guvmint may or may not feel obligated to honor (depending, as always, on political dynamics.)
Worst case scenario for SS: Retirees might only receive 75% of projected payouts three or four decades hence.
Worst case scenario for Motion Picture Pension: 13th and 14th checks, slightly less monthly payout; IAP is what it is at the time.
Suppose I was a 30 year old person that enters the union and works in the union until 45. Does that mean I could leave the industry and retain union health benefits for life?
By the way, if every vfx/animation worker got that memo by KC, and a quick overview of how to join, they would probably go union. Its a very quick and concise explanation of the benefits.
Like Mrs. Johnson, we were fortunate to have had a baby in 2008 and had similar expenses. We had another in late 2009 but by this time the deal with Motion Picture had been revised and we paid nearly $1000. While this is certainly better than having no insurance, it's significantly higher than $130. Her letter to unsigned employees should reflect current fees, not those of 2 years ago.
We had another in late 2009 but by this time the deal with Motion Picture had been revised and we paid nearly $1000. While this is certainly better than having no insurance, it's significantly higher than $130.
This may be slim comfort, but I think you came out ahead of most Americans. In 2009, a healthy baby with no problems cost at least $22,000 out-of-pocket for insured Americans with individual coverage.
The MPI Health Plan was "redesigned" in 2009. Due to 10% hikes in annual costs and slippage of investment values, the MPIPHP was looking at sizable deficits.
Out of pocket costs aren't going to be getting smaller, unfortunately.
Suppose I was a 30 year old person that enters the union and works in the union until 45. Does that mean I could leave the industry and retain union health benefits for life?
As it stands now, you would have "retiree health benefits" which would kick in at age 62, covering you, your spouse and dependent children.
Retiree health becomes supplemental to Medicare after age 65.
In order to have "retiree health benefits" would you not have to be employed at a, or several, union shops solidly for 15 years? Who on earth can manage to remain employed solidly for 12 months out of one year, let alone 15 years?
The current state of the industry seems to make it impossible to qualify for this type pension. It is nice to see that the pension money, being deposited because of my work, will be going to people other than myself.
Gooooooooooooo union!
Who on earth can manage to remain employed solidly for 12 months out of one year?
Not saying it's easy, but there's a good chunk of people working at the studios who manage to work quite a number of years there. Those with a very advanced skill set can find consistent work for years at a time.
I have remained employed at one studio for a number of years at a time. The problem is that almost every year, for nearly everyone employed there, there would be a hiatus for about one month. That would then negate the entire year for me, although money still went to the pension regardless.
I have been a member of the union since 1998. How many years do I have towards the pension? One.
I don't think it is worth it for most people to participate in something that only benefits a select few who have been fortunate enough to remain in employ for constant fifteen years stretches. Somewhat ironic that those that financially would need it the least would get the most.
I'm sure somehow this will all get twisted into something that suggests that I, and most of the very skilled people whom I know, are simply not talented enough to deserve a pension.
No. I agree with you.
I'm convinced that the union benefits have gaping holes that exclude more often than include. And honestly, everyone I work with and talk to about this agree...
The health and pension is a little game of cat & mouse that management and labor play with one another to each other's maximum benefit.
Management's incentive is to keep you employed to the bare minimum of their requirements to deposit funds toward the union. That keeps their bottom line in check and their stock happier. If they can lay you off or keep you temporary, they will because they pay less to TAG.
For TAG, the incentive is to organize as many people at corporations as possible in order to maximize the corporate contributions to the health and pension funds to keep them solvent over the long term. In order to protect those funds, it is also in their interest to keep member requirements high enough so as to not jeopardize the funds.
In either case, the issue is always about a big pile of money over which you have very little control over. Work union and only union and you will obviously have more benefit from the big pile of money. But big piles of money don't give a shit either way if you have steady work. And that's the truth.
I just read the pension part of our Health and Benefits Brief Overview and it states that to become vested into the pension plan you must be an ACTIVE PARTICIPANT (without a break in service*) and after 5 years and one hour.
(* A break in service is 2 consecutive Computation Years with less than 200 Vested Hours in each year)
Read the fine print before you start claiming that there is no way to work 12 consecutive months, because as I see it you don't have to. Steve should jump on here and clarify (incase i am reading this wrong and) before these comments run ramped scaring people. Just try to work union at least once a year or so and and you will not lose your pension.
*Side note. 160 hours of work is one month at 40 hours a week, and we only need 200 to not lose the pension. Most gigs last longer than that.
I'm not talking about losing a pension, I'm talking about qualifying for one to begin with.
Worked for three years straight at a union studio and because of how the time broke up, I only had one year count. Have worked on other union projects for the greater part of a particular year but none of that has counted.
It's a lovely idea to keep constantly employed at a union studio, but I have a more pressing need of keeping my family fed and clothed.
Again, not to retain a pension, to qualify for it. It will probably never happen for me. I hope those who get it enjoy the cash that I have worked so hard for.
There's a huge amount of misinformation being bandied about in the last few posts here. Let me try to sort things out:
In order to have "retiree health benefits" would you not have to be employed at a, or several, union shops solidly for 15 years?
No, the 15 years do not have to be continuous (which is what I think you mean by 'solidly'). From the time you start working, until you retire, you need to get a total of 15 'qualified' years to get retiree health benefits through the union plan. I'll explain 'qualified years' below.
It is nice to see that the pension money, being deposited because of my work, will be going to people other than myself.
Regarding the pensions, any money that goes into your Individual Account Plan will only benefit you. It is not deposited because of your work for anyone else. Regarding the Defined Benefit Pension Plan, the benefit you earn is yours. Once you're vested after 5 qualified years, it benefits you, not other people.
The problem is that almost every year, for nearly everyone employed there, there would be a hiatus for about one month. That would then negate the entire year for me, although money still went to the pension regardless.
I have been a member of the union since 1998. How many years do I have towards the pension? One.
This is incorrect. The pension plans, and the qualifying for the retiree health plan, are based on 'qualified years.' A qualified year is any calendar year in which one works 400 hours or more at a union studio. Someone working 40-hour work weeks would have a qualified year after two and a half months. So if indeed you have worked at a union studio for 11 months out of the year (or even as little as three months out of the year) since 1998, you would have 13 qualified years as of today.
Continuing on in correcting misinformation:
Management's incentive is to keep you employed to the bare minimum of their requirements to deposit funds toward the union. That keeps their bottom line in check and their stock happier. If they can lay you off or keep you temporary, they will because they pay less to TAG.
This is simply not how things work. The studios do not pay a red cent to TAG. Your dues are the only money that goes to TAG, and those range between $69 and about $100/quarter, depending on your job classification.
The studios DO pay into the Motion Picture Industry Health and Pension Plan. For every single hour you work, they pay into a trust fund for your two pensions and for your health benefits. It doesn't matter if they employ you for 3 months a year on an 'at-will' basis, or whether they have you on a 7-year contract--they pay into the MPIHPP for every hour you work for them.
For TAG, the incentive is to organize as many people at corporations as possible in order to maximize the corporate contributions to the health and pension funds to keep them solvent over the long term. In order to protect those funds, it is also in their interest to keep member requirements high enough so as to not jeopardize the funds.
Again, totally false. I'm beginning to think there's a management troll posting here to discourage certain animators at a certain studio from going union.
The union has NO access to the funds that go into the health and pension plans. Those go into a trust fund, and are solely for the benefit of members.
As for qualifying for benefits, the union has fought long and hard to get MORE people qualified. When the pension was first started, it required 20 qualified years to get a pension. Then it was pushed down to 10. Then the union got it pushed down to 5 qualified years. Also, then the Individual Account Plan was started up, it was set up with a ONE year (400 hour) vesting time.
When I became a union member, it required about a year of work to qualify for the health plan. Now the plan becomes active in half that time.
TAG fought for and got a 401(k) plan for it's member about a dozen years ago. It initially had a 6 month wait before one could join. Then it was three months. Now it's virtually immediate.
So the history of TAG has been to make the benefits better and better, and to make them ever more available to more animation professionals.
Last one:
Worked for three years straight at a union studio and because of how the time broke up, I only had one year count. Have worked on other union projects for the greater part of a particular year but none of that has counted.
This is mathematically not possible. As stated above, a qualified year is simply 400 hours worked in a calendar year. It doesn't even need to be continuous, so if you worked all of January, half of July, and all of October, you'd have a qualified year.
Another example: if you worked from Oct. 1, 2007 through March 30, 2009, you'd have three qualified years, since you'd have at least 400 hours in 2007, 2008, and 2009.
However, if you worked from Nov. 1, 2007 through Feb. 28, 2009, then you'd only have one qualified year, since in both 2007 and 2009 you would fall short of 400 hours (unless you were on a 50-hour or a 54-hour work week, in which case you would again have 3 qualified years).
It's really pretty simple. Anyone who has worked more than 400 hours at a union studio in a calendar year, and been told that they didn't get a qualified year, should bring their paystubs to the union office.
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