VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[ccpetersen]

So, if you don't earn enough, the union doesn't want you; if you decide to go FICore, the union thinks you're a scab. I realize that there are many in the "middle" for whom the union is a benefit, but doesn't this two-sided approach kind of scare new members away? Who makes the full monte in their first few years unless they hit the jackpot right away?
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Charter Member: Threadjackers Local 420

[ConnieTerwilliger]

I would really like to see statistics - to see how "many" many in the "middle" really is these days. When I joined AFTRA I was working 2 days a week at a signatory TV station as a staff announcer and did lots of radio and TV spots because of it, so I was covered for the first 10 or so years of AFTRA-tude, but after leaving the TV station to free lance as a producer/writer/talent, the dollars and signatories dwindled as the minimum earnings increased.

Here's what I would like to see...

1. Total Number of paying Union Members (AFTRA and SAG separately) - excluding Financial Core Non-Members. I found a website http://www.unionfacts.com that listed the total number of SAG members (self-reported) as 107,541 dating in 2004 - but nothing to indicate if that figure includes Fi-Core. Link to chart - http://www.unionfacts.com/unions/unionFinances.cfm?id=113

2. Total Number of paying Financial Core Non-Members (AFTRA and SAG separately)

3. Number of Union Members earning the minimum to qualify for Health Insurance for each of the past 5 years.

4. Number of Financial Core Non-Members earning the minimum to qualify for Health Insurance for each of the past 5 years.

And I'd really like to factor out the talent who pay themselves as signatory producers in order to qualify for Health Benefits - (more power to them that they have found a way to work the system, but it would skew the data.

Is access to this kind of information part of the Freedom of Information Act? Or are the unions even required to report this information?
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Playing for a living...
www.voiceover-talent.com
YouTube Channel: http://youtube.com/connieterwilliger