DGA Pension & Health Plans Approve New Medical Plan To Help Members Impacted By Ongoing Strikes

deadline.com:

Trustees of the DGA Pension & Health Plans have approved a free major medical plan for participants who lose coverage because of the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. “I am proud to announce that the DGA-Producers Pension & Health Plans Board of Trustees has unanimously approved the creation of a critically important free major medical plan for Health Plan participants and their eligible dependents who have been financially impacted by the work stoppage,” said DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter. “This innovative effort by the Plans’ trustees will help Plan participants facing financial hardship retain basic health coverage during this difficult time.” The new DGA benefit comes in the wake of a similar move by the Motion Picture Industry Pension & Health Plan – which covers members of IATSE, Teamsters Local 399 and several other unions – which recently eased the requirements that their members need to qualify for health coverage in order “to help participants and dependents affected by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.”  So, among Hollywood’s major guilds, that leaves only members of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA without similar protections, even though the major health plans are all funded by, and have management trustees represented by, the same companies.

Carol Lombardini, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, against which SAG-AFTRA and the WGA are striking, serves on the boards of all four major P&H Plans.

The frequently asked questions page of the WGA’s strike site notes, “There is no Health Fund requirement that the Health Plan extend health insurance coverage during a strike, and Trustees are 50% management and 50% Guild.