Traipsing around Disney today, I came across a former Sony Pictures Imageworks vet who wanted to talk about the failed campaign to get SPI under a union contract ...
I was one of the few supporters of the union in that election. I had been at Disney for seven years before Sony, and I went around telling people that they should vote "Yes," that even though they didn't think so, they needed the pension plan, they needed the portable health plan. And after they'd been in it for seven or more years, like I had, they would see how valuable it was.
I knew which way I'd vote, but I went to one of the meetings and the union and health plan people weren't selling the bennies too well. I didn't think they were explaining a lot of the stronger points of the Pension and Health Plan.
At the end, the permanent SPI staff didn't see things the union's that way. Everybody who'd been there at Sony as permanent staff liked the profit sharing and matching 401(k) Plan contributions they got from the company. So they voted "No," and convinced most of the temporary employees to cast their ballots the same way.
And some time after that, a lot of them got laid off and they lost their high-end benefits. The people who stayed on were told they had to go to production hire status, so they got none of the goodies they'd been getting before. And a bunch of them said to me, "You know, if we had this to do over again, we'd probably vote "yes." ...
I admitted that the meetings held by the IATSE and the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan reps could have been better, way better. One of the MPIPHP reps got into a shouting match with a couple of hostile questioners and the session deteriorated from there.
I said that the informational meetings left a lot to be desired, but the vote would have cut against the IA (and TAG) if we'd had the oratorical skills of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. Because it's a very human trait to believe that the good deal you're getting will go on forever, and the matched 401(k), generous health benefits and spiffy salary are permanent realities. And people wanted to believe.
So now many of Sony's (former) permanent employees, having discovered that the good deal they enjoyed was only temporary, have buyer's remorse. But it was bound to happen. When your employer isn't making much money, the good times can only roll on for so long. It's a lesson that artists in animation have learned many times before.
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8 comments:
The fact that in America health and pension benefits are tied so strongly to your specific place of employment is a serious problem. Every industry, if not nationwide, there should be portable healthcare and pension benefits.
The fact that in America health and pension benefits are tied so strongly to your specific place of employment is a serious problem.
No kidding. Earlier today I read about an uninsured American who shot herself in a failed attempt to get medical treatment for a damaged shoulder.
No employer should provide health care for their employees. Its a stupid outdated policy that makes zero sense. Individuals should all pay for their own health care. With that as the first step, it would have been easy to have an effective regulatory overhaul of the health care industry.
Instead, the insurance companies got a huge handout.
I have been working independently for a while and working remotely. It has been totally liberating to have my own health care and not worry about when the project ends I have to find health care right away. You do have to shop it every couple of years to keep the competitive costs.
I totally agree with the above comments. Not only do you have to get new coverage when you switch jobs, often you have to change doctors. It's impossible to build a relationship. I've been on a prescription medication for many years and every time I switch jobs, I feel like I'm drug seeking. I have to re-explain the whole background just so I can get the meds that I have been taking safely and effectively for years.
"No employer should provide health care for their employees. Its a stupid outdated policy that makes zero sense."
Thats how we got into this mess to begin with. The Insurance and Healthcare Industry welcomed the idea of 'group insurance ' with open arms and open legs. We fed off of it for 40 years or so, and became to expect it as how our society runs. Take away the cover of group insurance, and what do you have? Reality. Do you think that if these industrys could have individual premieum policy prices make sense to employers and up their rates for people outside of group policies further? No. But they sure would have loved making more for people in group insurance. Its just that it was so obvious that if they did, the employers would have dropped them. Enjoy the mess we are in. It's gonna break you. There is no hope.
No employer should provide health care for their employees. Its a stupid outdated policy that makes zero sense.
Understand how we got into this system.
Employer health care got a big boost when it was offered in lieu of wages because of wage controls during WWII.
Then the policy was codified when President Ike and the Congress enshrined it into law in 1954.
Steve,
I have a question. Why can't union members who are on voluntary withdrawal pay into the healthcare and pension on their own until they get reemployed at a signator studio. Unless my math is off, isn't it about half the cost to pay into health and pension than it is to get COBRA? Just wandering if it's a regulatory thing or what?
Thanks.
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