Strike nearing its end

BURBANK — The three-month-long Writers Guild of America strike that crippled Hollywood and resulted in lost wages totaling more than $2 billion is slowly drawing to a close.

Writers guild leaders unanimously supported a tentative three-year contract that calls for increased DVD residuals and a larger share of profits for projects streamed on the Internet, two of the main reasons writers stopped work on Nov. 5, guild spokesman Gregg Mitchell said.

The agreement would double the rate that writers are paid for movie and television shows sold online, establish the union’s jurisdiction over programming created for the Internet and provide payment for entertainment that is streamed on websites, according to the terms of the agreement released by the guild.

Meetings will be held Tuesday at guild locations in Los Angeles and New York to allow the union’s movie and television writers to decide whether to end the work stoppage, said Patric Verrone, president of the guild’s West Coast branch.

Work could resume by Wednesday, but the economic toll for Los Angeles County could be felt for some time, said Jack Kyser, head of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.

“Wages lost by both the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and the [writers guild] was $2.1 billion,” Kyser said. “But there may still be some lingering pain from the walkout, where some shows have to deal with struggling ratings and could wait until the start of next season to resume new shows.”

That figure may not tell the whole picture, as lost wages from below-the-line workers — those who work in Hollywood but do not claim membership in either guild — were not counted.

“The strike hurt everyone, but the good news is that it’s nearly over,” Kyser said.

That good news trickled down to Burbank City Hall, where Mayor Marsha Ramos praised the deal that could end the work stoppage.

“It is really good news for Burbank, for our residents and for our business community,” she said. “Now we can move forward. We’re all pleased because what affects the region affects us all.”

While economists are still calculating the exact hit Burbank took from the three months of no studio production and the loss of ancillary business, Ramos was confident the loss wasn’t as heavy as the damage to the surrounding region.

“In terms of our overall economy, we survived this,” she said. “We haven’t had a real good look at our sales tax revenue, but I predict it will be a pinch when you look at this in an integrated fashion with the California economy as a whole and the state budget shortcomings and the whole housing crisis.”

Though Burbank expects to bear some economic burden from the strike, the work stoppage was well worth the hit the city and the writers were forced to endure, Ramos said.

“[The writers] lost a great deal in the short term, but in the long term, it certainly has to be seen as a win for them,” she said. “The strike was definitely worth it.”