New IATSE Contract (revised)
The Editors Guild will be holding an open meeting Thursday to explain the new IATSE basic agreement, on which members will be voting shortly. The most controversial provision is an increase in the basic health plan eligibility requirement from 300 to 400 hours — in the third year of the contract. This will make it harder for people who don’t work much to get coverage.
It also means that it’ll be harder to fill up your bank of hours. For those of you who don’t understand it, the bank extends your health insurance coverage. You accumulate hours in the bank during good times and then cash those hours in for another six months of coverage when your ordinary hours run out. It used to take 300 hours to get another half year of coverage, now it’ll take 400. Also, the maximum amount you can hold in the bank — 450 hours — won’t change, so you’ll get less out of the bank during a long dry spell.
Needless to say, this comes at a very bad economic time. I know many people who have been facing long unemployment periods and are turning to self-pay via COBRA to keep their benefits. But that can be startlingly expensive.
Details of the contract leaked out long ago and can be reviewed here. There’s also a new web site devoted to challenging the 400-hour requirement here.
The Guild recently sent out an email describing the contract in general terms, and it promises to get members the complete memorandum soon. I hope that it comes in time for us to read it before Thursday.
Meeting details:
Thursday, Jan. 22nd
Directors Guild
7920 Sunset
Los Angeles
7:30 pm
A similar meeting will take place Tuesday, February 10 at the New York office.
Explore posts in the same categories: Editors Guild
Splice Now 
January 20, 2009 at 6:50 am
Here’s Ron Kutak’s summary about the health plan from his recent detailed email to members. Rollbacks are more extensive than I indicated in the post.
In addition, he says, “No changes were made to our local agreements.” That can be seen as a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your point of view.
January 25, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Ron Kutak sold us out again-
The Editor’s meeting was more of how “hard he fought for us” and how “we are so lucky with our health plan”-
The change from Bank of Hours from 300-400 is JUST Wrong!
The Bank should then be Opened Up to as many as as we can BANK!
No Limit?
All the Unions need to band together and VOTE NO !!
We can no longer afford to have our “Unions” run by these People-
They are not fighting for US!
WE WILL STRIKE!!!!
February 10, 2009 at 1:08 pm
I got into the motion picture business, on the production side, in October 1990.
The seniority system had just gone to the side of the road, and all the new guys were called 30 day wonders. It was a 30 day qualifier to be placed on the roster. At that time the contract was a better deal then most working class people had available to them out side of the industry. As it is in most cases right now. I look at the Actors, and the battles that they are waging. I’m grateful our negotiators brought back a contract, before the present contract expired, with a cost of living raise included.
It is not a perfect contract. During these economic times, i think it is a well negotiated one.
February 12, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I disagree the contract is NOT a good one.
If they wish to cut our benefits then they too must cut their pay-roll (Less administrative costs and peole in the office)
We all must chip in and that means THE BOARD !
No on 400 hours!
BAck to the Table
Save our Health Care
July 9, 2009 at 4:51 pm
can you furnish me woth the details on wher/how to access a copy of the current IATSE contract? have tried google but with no success. do they have a website?
July 9, 2009 at 8:14 pm
The Editors Guild is here:
http://www.editorsguild.com/index.cfm
The site lists wages and holidays. I don’t know whether they have a complete copy of the contract online. Look under the menu called “Employers”
The Wages page is here:
https://www.editorsguild.com/Wages.cfm
The parent union, the IATSE is here:
http://www.iatse-intl.org/home.html