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Non-Union? You Can Still Open An AFTRA H&R Account. What?

Hey there!

If you hang around the union HQ here in LA long enough, you learn some very interesting things.

For instance, you actually don’t have to be a member of SAG-AFTRA to open an AFTRA H&R (health and retirement) account. You’re guaranteed that right by federal law.

Opening the account is one thing, but getting the benefit of it is something else.

Here’s what that’s all about:


(Click/tap ↑↑↑↑↑↑ that red YouTube button to subscribe to my channel. You’ll get notified when I release new videos.)

Hope this helps!

David

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Raw YouTube Captioning

Hey, it’s David H Lawrence the 17th, and I’ve got another a piece of that puzzle from the last video that I put out on.
How are all jobs on a cxr union friendly as well as non-union friendly and I kind of hinted.
At what? I want to talk about in this particular video.
getting a union qualifying job is different from getting a union friendly job at Union friendly job means
The union has a contract you can take the job if you’re a union actor a union qualifying job is a job that pays enough
money.
Union minimums under a contract that it also qualifies for health and retirement.
Whether it’s under a sag-aftra contract or a legacy contract from sag or after.
And in the case of the health and retirement plans, they haven’t yet emerged.
As of this this recording does look like they will for the next few years. But the point is the the Legacy programs are
still in place.
And the one that covers audiobooks is the aftra health and retirement plan. So that’s why when you go on a CX and your
offer to book a book a job, you will find that there are three buttons.
Either two or three of which are available to accept or decline when you decide you’re going to accept the offer or
decline the offer.
the to accepting button say except
and accept with
health retirement with after Health in retirement
and
Honey Singh
Those jobs can only get you taft-hartley into the Union right? You have to have one Union qualifying job to get you into
sag-aftra. So that’s one thing which is great. If you get a job that pays at least $250 per finished hour.
You can use that to get into the Union. So that’s one thing.
But the thing that most people don’t know and then I found out from one of my union staff members.
is that
You can open without being in the Union.
You can open an account.
At the after health and retirement plan.
What that means is even if you’re not in the Union.
You can begin to accrue union benefits.
So if you do a job that is Union qualifying like a an audio book that pays at least 250 per finished hour.
The publisher or whoever you’re doing the work for if they’re doing it under Union contract. They have the requirement of
painting an additional anywhere between 12 and 14% of depends on the publisher into your account of this is even if your
non-union
Are you saying just wait a minute? How could you possibly have a health and retirement account if you’re not Union well.
Those organizations helping retirement plans.
Are governed under federal laws called Arisa laws the in Arisa stands for insurance.
And so the compliance with those laws requires that the organizations that have these health and retirement plans have to
allow.
anybody
to join them
Weather in the union or not, and I’ve had several clients and students who have gone to aftera.
joined
and are now currently
Engaged in a projects that are paying into the health and retirement plan.
They’re not in the union yet.
They can be if they want to but one of them elected not to because it’s $3,500 for an initiation and she did have the
money.
But the point is once you do join the union then all of that money that’s been contributed to both the health plan and the
retirement plan are going to now be available to you through the after health retirement plan.
and when I tell it to people there like
You don’t know what you’re talkin about your crazy and I I checked it with six or seven different.
People and it’s the truth.
You can open it up. Now. You can’t get at the funds. This is the big thing. You can’t get at the funds.
Or qualify for the health coverage, which is stupid amazing.
Until you actually join the Union.
But you can start to contribute to that.
money those Monies
Before you join the Union.
So if you’re on the path to join the union at the very least open up the account I can sit there doormat with nothing in
it. But open up the account just in case you get offered a job that use Union qualified.
So you make your contributions or your publisher makes the contributions the person is producing a major contributions and
down the line when you’re ready to join the union. You’ve got a head start on your health and retirement.
I know it’s crazy, isn’t it?
I’m wondering if there’s a reason why you wouldn’t want to join the union or reason why you love to join the union do know
how
Inexpensive and how vastly covering the quote Cadillac plan of the sag-aftra health plan. The after Health Plan is
amazing.
And what are the things that have stopped use at the Initiation fee is at the ongoing fee. Is it the fact that you
wouldn’t be able to do non-union work for certain contracts?
Tell me in the comments below give me your ideas ongoing Union and and what to do and what you decided to do about it.
Okay?
If you want to subscribe to my channel and that will let you know when my next video comes out and we’re doing one a day
for the next year.
Do you want to do that? Go ahead and click on my head over there? And if there’s no head over there. Well, then there’s a
subscribe button somewhere on the page.
And if you want to see the latest video that’s been put out that I’ve done go ahead and click on that frame right there.
It’ll play it for you.
I paid them to do that.
I do. Okay. It said David Lawrence xvii. I really appreciate you watching and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

6 Responses to Non-Union? You Can Still Open An AFTRA H&R Account. What?

  1. Chris Buckner January 31, 2019 at 11:27 am #

    $3500 to join the union means I couldn’t afford it for quite some time. Besides, I want to focus on learning VO and getting good at it before I even think about union vs non-union. It sounds like that could change in a heartbeat if I’m offered certain jobs, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Thanks for the video David.

  2. Chris Ansoff January 31, 2019 at 4:01 pm #

    Hi David. Great video. I know it will be a bit of time before I reach union status (cost for one). However, how do I get an account setup for H&R? I did a search on AFTRA H&R signup and did not find much useful. I tried to sign up with AFTRA as a non-member but the form wanted a AFTRA ID number :-p. Thanks! Chris

  3. Tobi Czumak January 31, 2019 at 6:39 pm #

    Hey David, terrific info today (and yesterdays) — I have same question as Chris Ansoff. I’m in the same position — would love to join the Union, but I read somewhere a few months ago that an ex-member would have to pay thousands more to rejoin. How true is that?

    • David H. Lawrence XVII January 31, 2019 at 6:41 pm #

      That amount will depend on when you withdrew. You’ll need to call the union local nearest you to get that figure.

  4. Diane Bakos April 16, 2019 at 7:54 am #

    I wondered how this worked. Thanks for explaining! I actually do lots of on-camera work, as opposed to voiceover (although I’d love to do more vo!), and now have two SAG waivers; next SAG job means I have to join.I’ve put it off because of that stiff initial joining fee, but also because I book loads of non-union jobs. Maybe ficor is the answer. However, because of my earnings, I did qualify for a two-year period for the union health coverage. For anyone here, I have to tell you, David is absolutely correct: I saved an estimated $10,000/year on my insurance alone! Hmmm…now I’m wondering if I should join just for that……

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