The SAG-AFTRA board on Monday approved its four-year contract with the major studios, which includes a plan to merge the union’s two pension funds on Jan. 1, 2028.
The board voted 89% in favor of recommending the deal, which now goes to the membership for a ratification vote.
The pension merger has been a source of internal friction in the past. The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists combined into one union in 2012, and the health plans merged in 2017, but the pension systems have remained separate.
Some beneficiaries of the SAG pension plan have warned that merging with AFTRA will weaken the fund.
“It’s a bailout,” said Peter Antico, a former candidate for secretary-treasurer who has already lodged a complaint about it with the Department of Labor. “It’s very detrimental to SAG and it bails out AFTRA’s retirement fund.”
An argument in favor of the merger is that some members earn income attributable to both plans, but not enough to qualify for pension credits in either one. Those “split earnings” will now be joined into one system, making some eligible for benefits who were not before. In order to effectuate the deal, the studios have agreed to a 1% increase in the rate of contributions to the merged plan, which union leaders argue will stabilize its finances.
“The merger will increase contribution rates and improve benefits for both SAG and AFTRA participants,” the union said in a statement on Monday evening.
Concerns about the effects of merging both the health and pension funds was a key source of opposition to the merger of the two unions in 2011.
The contract also includes terms on artificial intelligence and streaming residuals. The deal includes an increase in contributions to a union fund established to pay residuals to performers on the most-watched streaming shows. Under the existing contract, the fund gets 25% of a performer’s base residual. The new agreement increases the figure to 35%.
On AI, the union did not get a guarantee of payment to a union fund if studios employ “synthetic characters” like Tilly Norwood. Instead, the union got the studios to agree not to use synthetics unless they bring “significant additional value” to the production. The union also got a new arbitration provision to enforce the synthetic AI terms of the contract.
The deal also includes increases to most minimum rates by 3% for each of the four years of the contract.
The union will hold webinars for members to go over the terms on Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as later in the month. Members will receive postcards in the mail instructing them how to cast their vote on ratification. The vote will close on June 4.
SAG-AFTRA negotiators reached a deal on May 3 after six weeks of bargaining with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
The AMPTP previously reached a deal with the Writers Guild of America, which was ratified on April 24 with 90% voting in favor. The WGA deal included a significant bailout of the union’s health fund, which had lost $200 million in the past four years, as well as cutbacks in health benefits.
The Directors Guild of America sat down Monday with the AMPTP to begin its round of negotiations, which are expected to last through early June.
The AMPTP has been keen to avoid a repeat of the 2023 strikes and to bake in a longer period of “labor peace” by securing four-year contracts instead of the traditional three-year terms.
