Titanic Actress Claims Actors’ Union Deceived Members, Allowed for Benefit Cuts

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SAG-AFTRA Class Action Overview:

• Who: Frances Fisher, known for playing Rose’s mother on Titanic, is suing the prominent actors’ union Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
• Why: Fisher claims the union made collective bargaining agreements without informing its older members that the deals would cut their health care benefits.
• Where: The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles, California.

The SAG-AFTRA union failed its older members by agreeing to a series of collective bargaining agreements without telling them the deals would result in cuts to health care benefits, a new class action lawsuit alleges.

The class action lawsuit was filed in California by Hollywood actress Frances Fisher, best known for her role as Rose DeWitt-Bukater’s mother in Titanic, who alleges that SAG-AFtRA violated its duty of fairly representing its 160,000 members — particularly those 65 and older — by signing the deals that cut health care benefits for a group of its members and their families, Law360 reports.

The class action lawsuit is based on changes made by the new agreements that will change eligibility requirements for the union’s cash-strapped health plans.

The new agreements raise the income thresholds for members to qualify, eliminate pensioners’ eligibility through residual earnings, and cut paths to eligibility for certain senior and veteran members. According to the claim, the three new agreements cover union staff working on commercials, Netflix, and television and theatrical productions.

“The Benefit Cuts effectively eliminated benefits under the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan for thousands of Union members and their families who are now unable to qualify based on earnings where residual earnings are no longer credited toward SAG-AFTRA Health Plan eligibility, and many members face the dramatically increased hurdles for eligibility under the Health Plan in the future,” Fisher said in the claim.

According to the class action lawsuit, SAG-AFTRA and the collective bargaining agreement negotiators were aware the new deals would slash benefits for those who had previously qualified, but did raise the alarm.

“Following the August 12, 2020 announcement of the Benefit Cuts, Defendants also misused their fiduciary positions and Union assets to advocate in support of and defend the Benefit Cuts and the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan Trustees, and to protect their personal interests,” the claim reads.

The union instead told members that the cuts would lead to “transformative gains” in health care and urged them to ratify the deal, the claim alleges.

The claim adds that by failing “to disclose the vital information concerning the SAGAFTRA health plan” and agreeing to the deals, the union leaders breached their duties of fair representation.

Screen Actors Guild President Ed Asner filed a similar lawsuit in December accusing SAG-AFTRA’s health care plan and administrators of breaching their fiduciary duties to members under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, Law360 reports.

Fisher wants to represent all 160,000 SAG-AFTRA members and is suing for violations of the National Labor Relations Act, seeking a court order to void the relevant CBAs and reverse the benefit changes, among other things. She plans to add a breach of fiduciary duty claim to the class action lawsuit.

SAG-AFTRA told Law360 that the claim was “completely without merit.”

The union told Law360 that the health plan was a “completely separate and distinct legal entity” and that the changes were the “result of economic pressures from the pandemic and sustained hyperinflation in the health care sector.”

“These kinds of decisions are made by the plan and are not within the purview of the SAG-AFTRA union.”

What do you think about the older members of the union losing their health care benefits? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!

Fisher is represented by Neville Johnson, Douglas Johnson and Daniel Lifschitz of Johnson & Johnson LLP, by Steven Schwartz, Robert Kriner and Emily Skaug of Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & DonaldsonSmith LLP and by Edward Siedle.

The union and the officials are represented by Julie Gutman Dickinson and Lisa Demidovich of Bush Gottlieb.

The SAG-AFTRA Health Care Class Action Lawsuit is Frances Fisher v. SAG-AFTRA et al., Case No. 2:21-cv-05215, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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