This afternoon, MPTF (Motion Picture & Television Fund) and the union representing certain of its employees, SEIU-UHW, jointly announced a 60-day cooling-off period during which time the two organizations will continue to negotiate in good faith toward a collective bargaining agreement. The announcement was made by Bob Beitcher, MPTF CEO, and Dave Regan, President...
We met earlier today with the bargaining team from our union, SEIU-UHW, and the federal mediator who has been involved in our negotiations. After extensive good faith bargaining on MPTF’s part, we have reached an impasse. No further negotiating sessions have been planned. At this time, we are preparing for a strike that the...
The common thread running through every MPTF volunteer group I ever meet up with is “don’t thank us, we should thank you, because we get so much more out of volunteering than you can ever appreciate.” And so it was a week ago last Sunday when I saw down for a really enjoyable breakfast...
The history of Thanksgiving is wrought with political controversy – starting with the original “thanksgiving feast” in 1621 between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag (survived the genocide and are in the gaming biz in Massachusetts), the second day of thanksgiving (June 29, 1676) which in part recognized the colonists’ recent victory over the “heathen...
By nature, I’m a pretty positive person but a realist as well. I never thought the challenges facing me at MPTF when I joined in 2010 were going to be easily solved, but I felt confident that with the support of an engaged management team we’d be able to pick our way through to...
This past Saturday night, the Fund’s sixth annual A FINE ROMANCE took place on a sound stage 27 on the Sony lot in Culver City. Unlike our two big events before the Emmys and Oscars, this is an intimate gathering of industry members around song and dance. A FINE ROMANCE, developed by MPTF Board...
Once again, the future of long-term care at the Motion Picture & Television Fund is a subject of great interest in the blogosphere. I wish we were flattered by all the attention we’ve gotten in the past day! As a considerable amount of time has passed between our announcement in February that we had...
One of the most common questions people ask me about my job is “What keeps you up at night?” My usual answer is “Which night are you asking about?” But seriously … the MPTF retirement community on The Wasserman Campus in Woodland Hills is a microcosm of the many, many issues swirling around our...
As long ago as 1939, the Board of the Motion Picture Relief Fund (as MPTF was called then, before the days of television and our expanded mission) recognized the need for pension support for members of the motion picture industry. The Board saw MPRF applicants who were requesting “not only financial aid, but that...
Not long after I joined MPTF as CEO, I had lunch with Dr. Janice Spinner, the Medical Director of our 8 health centers in Southern California and a wonderful doctor/diagnostician in her own right. In the course of conversation I asked her, “What are you and the other docs hearing from your patients in...