As an AVID/FCP editor, I have a day rate and a weekly rate, but I use to have a monthly rate for long form projects. I'm thinking of going back to that as an incentive to employers. What do you think? I just want to get an idea if this is bogus or not. The reason that I dropped it was, when I use to have it, I'd get hired under that rate and then my employer would only retain me for two to three or even just one week and they would be shocked when I would charge them the weekly. In my deal I would explain that if they retain me for over a month then, and only then they would get that rate, otherwise it would revert to the weekly.

I'd suggest you stick with a day rate. I even sometimes go with an hourly rate if I feel like the production company is likely to take advantage of the situation and make the days 18 hours or something - in which case i'd be compensated with overtime. I've never worked with a monthly rate or heard many editors that does so.
You can give them a day rate and tell them that your day is 10 hours and that anything beyond it is overtime.
Hope this helps!

I've never heard of a monthly rate. For features -- usually you get hired at a weekly rate and as the project nears completion, you can switch to a day or hourly rate to finish up the little stuff.

Remember that companies cannot have it both ways. They have a choice to hire someone FULL Time and PAY for that person to sit around when work is Slow. They also have to pay BENEFITS (Heath Insurance, Vacation Pay and Sick Leave, etc) So Daily Hires/Freelancers are a HUGE Benefit for companies who need to hire PROFESSIONALS like us to work on projects as they come up and then are free of the expense when they don't have current projects. It is a win win for you and them. So remind them of that. They can hire someone FULL Time if they don't like hiring Freelancers.