CSK&D Files Class Action to Protect Health Coverage Benefits of SAG-AFTRA Members

CSKD filed a class action to protect the health coverage benefits of members of the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television, Recording and Radio Artists (“SAG-AFTRA”). SAG-AFTRA is an American labor union representing approximately 160,000 film and television actors, stand-ins, journalists, radio personalities, recording artists, singers, voice actors, dancers, stunt-persons, background-performers, and other media professionals worldwide. The lawsuit alleges that the Trustees of the SAG-AFTRA Health Plans breached their fiduciary duties by (1) agreeing to a merger of the SAG and AFTRA health plans and promising that the combined plan would be “financially sustainable for all members for years to come” and “strengthen the overall financial health of the plan while ensuring comprehensive benefits for all participants;” (2) withholding information regarding the true financial state that the combined health plan; and (3) announcing, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, that the Trustees would impose draconian cuts that would eliminate promised health plan coverage for thousands of SAG-AFTRA members in a discriminatory manner that disproportionately impacted older members. The parties reached a settlement for $20.6 million plus substantial non-monetary relief.

Details of the settlement and litigation are available at sagaftrahealthplansettlement.com.

A video with statements of support for the lawsuit from SAG-AFTRA members Clancy Brown, Elaine Hendrix, Lisa Ann Walker, Morgan Freeman, Vincent D’Onofrio, Amy Schumer, Martin Sheen, Elliot Gould, Connie Stevens, Jack Kehler, Mark Hamill, Ed Asner, Matthew Modine, Kirk Acevedo, Leslie Ann Warren, Jodi Long, Lea Thompson, Frances Fisher, Shirley Jones, Whoopi Goldberg, Rick Overton, Barbara Niven, and Carol Kane can be viewed here.