By Cathy Repola
In late March, president Alan Heim sent members an email with results of our first survey regarding priorities for next year’s IATSE Basic Agreement negotiations.
This survey was a first step; others will follow. The goal is to build a platform that will provide members with an opportunity to make sure your priorities are identified and to help engage and educate all of you around the detailed facets of those issues, as well as building alliances with other locals who share in our goals. These priorities are fundamental and we certainly believe they are in line with the wishes of the majority of rank-and-file members within the Basic Agreement bargaining unit. The future IA survey will better inform us if this is the case.
If you missed Alan’s email, here are the largest vote-getters in terms of member priorities:
-Secure enough income (through enhanced residuals or other forms of income) into the MPI Pension and Health Plans so we can reach adequate levels to be able to negotiate future pension increases and to maintain our current health qualifying criteria and level of benefits. I have consistently written and talked about the funding of the MPI Plans with an eye toward sustainable benefits, long-term, not just the three-year window of a typical Basic Agreement.
-Improve scale wages. As you know, there has been an outcry since the last negotiations among the IA membership about cost-of-living increases, and that will need to be addressed.
-Eliminate and/or improve the terms and conditions of the “New Media Sideletter.” There is growing demand to treat streaming content in line with traditional movie and television content.
Prior to any negotiations, actuaries project anticipated income and offset that to anticipated expenses, merely to maintain the status quo (or relatively so) over the typical three-year term of the Basic Agreement. Income always flows into the pension plan first. So if we project a shortfall of income versus expenses, that shortfall hits the health plan. That is why in 2018 and in 2021 (and many previous negotiations), we were faced with needing to secure additional income into the health plan to get us through those three-year periods. In 2018 and 2021 those projected deficits were met by increasing employer hourly health contributions.
And remember there are only three sources of income — residuals, employer hourly contributions and investment income.
We do have some existing new media residuals. It is important to remember this because there is a lot of misinformation out there about this issue. We are going to continue to face increases in health care costs. There is no debate about that. This will remain a challenge in our negotiations. To reach our goal of achieving at least 80% funding of the pension when the actuaries project it will occur, we must meet our projected assumed return on investments, currently 7.25%, every year. The end of year 2022 funded percentage was at 69.8%, slightly above what was projected during the 2021 Basic negotiations. But I also want to dispel rumors that indicate the pension plan is on the verge of being insolvent or that it is not being properly managed. Neither is true.
It may help to review briefly MPI’s 2022 financial highlights so we can gain a better idea of what’s at stake.
The amount of hourly contributions were up from 2021. Income from residuals was at $605.3 million, which exceeded our projections. A little more than half of that was from “new media” residuals. That represents a total increase of around $100 million from 2021.
Meanwhile, the active health reserves were at 17.2 months and the retiree health at eight months. Pension investment returns were -8.8%, IAP -9.3%. Our current ongoing annual assumed rate on return is 7.25%, so all the year-end investment numbers play a factor — both when they are positive, like in 2021, but also in years like 2022, where investments overall took big hits. We will need to factor in all of this year’s financials prior to next year’s negotiations.
There will be much more information heading your way in the coming months. It will be imperative for you to be focused on all email correspondence to ensure your participation in all these efforts. Make sure your email addresses on record with the Guild are current, and please use personal and not work emails. If you have opted out of receiving emails from our MPEG business email address, you will miss the most important information that will be sent out. To resubscribe, visit your member profile on the Guild’s website and change your email notifications.
We referred to this as a preliminary survey because the IA will be conducting a survey of all the members within the bargaining unit regarding issues specific to the Basic Agreement. In addition, we will simultaneously distribute a survey for the members to identify their priority issues specific to Local 700. More details and explanation will be provided before these roll out.
Meanwhile, in recent meetings to discuss these next negotiations, the IA leadership, in addition to the survey, intends to hold focus groups and town hall meetings. Committees will also be created (or already have been created by the time you read this) to focus on specific areas of preparation for the negotiations.
And I leave you on a positive note: I will again be serving on the MPIPHP board of directors, effective June 16.
Stay tuned, because there is so much more to come.
