Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/716514
12 SAG-AFTRA | Summer 2016 | SAGAFTRA.org D AV I D W H I T E A Letter from the National Executive Director "One of my key goals for SAG-AFTRA is for us to become ever-more nimble and responsive to our members." plan staff, or that you have taken a moment to peruse the comprehensive website dedicated to the merged plan, sagaftrahealth.org. The establishment of this single, unified plan represents the achievement of a major goal asserted by our membership even before our unions merged. It provides a robust foundation of health care for our membership, which the trustees can continue to improve upon, nurture and grow over time. Second, our new member-care Contact Center: As you know, one of my key goals for SAG-AFTRA is for us to become ever-more nimble and responsive to our members and to the many employers, agents and other professionals who contact us each day with questions to answer and problems to resolve. I am quite pleased with another meaningful step towards fulfilling this objective, which is the opening of our Contact Center. We now have 15 dedicated representatives around the country who have received specialized training in best-in-class customer service technology. Within the first week of our opening in early summer, this team was answering nearly 1,000 calls, emails and online chats each day with members and others. Over 70 percent of incoming phone calls were answered within 30 seconds and most issues were resolved without the need for subsequent call transfers to other staff. Based on daily surveys and the appreciative feedback we have received Dear Member, W e are in the full bloom of summer and a great deal has already occurred as we begin preparations for our upcoming TV/ Theatrical negotiations. First, our unified health plan: It was with extreme satisfaction that I first reported to our elected leadership in June that the respective boards of trustees for the SAG Health Plan and AFTRA Health Fund voted to merge into a single health plan effective Jan. 1, 2017. This is tremendous news for our membership on many fronts. Fully 65,000 souls who depend on these plans will become beneficiaries of a single, financially strengthened plan that offers automatic family coverage for all participants. The merger will immediately help thousands of our members seeking eligibility next year who currently contend with the scourge of split earnings when working under our television agreements. The new plan will offer first-class service for participants, provided by staff who are being trained — right now, as I write this letter — in the various features of the new plan, many of which are similar to the current SAG Health Plan model. I hope that all of you who are interested in the details of the new plan were able to attend one of the many educational sessions we offered in partnership with to date, this initiative is already successful and advances our goal to provide excellent service to members in every local and who may be working anywhere in the world. Third, our continued — and growing — success in organizing campaigns: Just this week, we announced the groundbreaking vote by the professionals at La Raza and La Mega to join SAG-AFTRA. They are two Spanish-language radio stations that are owned by Spanish Broadcasting Systems, the largest publicly traded Hispanic-controlled media and entertainment company in the United States. This vote highlights a series of recent victories under our audiobook and broadcast agreements, as well as significant, positive organizing activity with members of our background, voiceover and commercial performer communities. Finally, I am working closely with President Carteris and other leaders to prepare for upcoming negotiations. Be on the lookout for more news about this as we prepare for the member-led W&W process this fall. I wish you a joyous and happy summer. In unity and looking forward, David White