Critics of the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan’s recent changes have made good on their promise to take the plan’s trustees to court, filing a class action lawsuit accusing the trustees of violating labor laws protecting pension and health benefit plans.

When actor Robert Loggia died in 2015, his widow, Audrey Loggia, was notified by the SAG Health Plan that she was entitled to receive continuing health coverage as a surviving spouse “for the remainder of her lifetime or until she remarried.” But a class action lawsuit filed today against the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan and its trustees says that “before either of those circumstances appreciated, the Plan notified her on November 24, 2020, that she would lose coverage on September 30, 2021” under eligibility and benefit changes that take effect in the New Year.

Facing staggering deficits, the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan announced in August that it will be raising premiums and earnings thresholds for coverage on Jan. 1 in order to stay afloat. “While this restructuring will preserve access to an excellent health plan for the majority of our participants, the changes will be disruptive for some,” the Plan said in a letter to participants, noting that those who lose coverage because they don’t meet the new earnings requirements may be eligible for coverage under Obama Care. “Without restructuring the Health Plans, we are projecting a deficit of $141 million this year and $83 million in 2021, and by 2024 the Health Plan is projected to run out of reserves,” the letter stated.

Two members of the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee that bargained for the union’s recently ratified film and TV contract said tonight that they had not been told during the talks of the severity of the problems facing the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan.

The board of SAG-AFTRA’s largest local on Tuesday voted 69 percent to 31 percent against the new TV/theatrical deal approved by the national board, The Hollywood Reporter has learned, in a “toxic” meeting that resulted in a symbolic show of force signaling tumultuous times ahead for entertainment’s largest union.

Patricia Richardson, president of the SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles Local, urged the guild’s members today to vote no on the union’s new film and TV contract. “The deal isn’t good enough, and now is the time to fix it,” she said during a Zoom press conference with other leaders of the opposition, which includes the local’s two vice presidents – Frances Fisher and David Jolliffe – and A. Martinez, co-chair of the local’s Ethnic Employment Opportunities Committee.