Though no protests were held in Glendale, DreamWorks Animation and ABC 7 could be affected by the work stoppage. Disney also has its imagineering campus in Glendale.
“The loss for motion picture and television production is about $80 million a day,” said Jack Keyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “There will be a ripple impact in terms of consumer retail and industry in areas of high concentration, like Burbank and Glendale. We’ve already heard some reports on restaurant sales softening.”
Writers took to the streets at 9 a.m. Monday after the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers failed to reach a last-minute deal Sunday regarding the major roadblocks that have left the two sides miles apart, writers guild member Jeffrey Berman said.
At issue is the amount writers receive from DVD sales and the pay structure from new media outlets, such as shows on the Internet and on cellphones.
Writers are seeking an increase from 4 cents to 8 cents paid to them for each DVD sold, but they tabled the issue Sunday in an attempt to find common ground, Berman said.
“We took it off the table and they refused to negotiate,” he said. “We keep looking at the middle of the road and we can’t find it. They won’t budge.”
Producers say the increase is unreasonable.
“It makes absolutely no sense to increase the burden of this additional compensation,” Nick Counter, president of the producers alliance, said in a statement. “Their DVD proposal would more than double the cost to producers.”
