An independent think tank organization has turned in its final report on the consequences of the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America) strike. The report claims that:
– The strike cost California alone 2.1 BILLION (or 2100 million, just for perspective) dollars from its economy
– Over 37,700 jobs were lost
– The combination of billions in lost economy and lost jobs pushed California into economic recession
I really hope the AMPTP (the producers organization) and the leadership of SAG and AFTRA (the actors unions) are paying close attention to this report and govern themselves accordingly as they try to avoid another film industry work stoppage. The folks at Yahoo News give us this:
The report, issued by the economic think tank on Thursday, takes on increasing importance as the Screen Actors Guild and Hollywood’s major movie studios are embroiled in their own contract talks that threaten to throw the industry into another work stoppage as soon as the SAG contract expires on June 30. “The biggest thing that (a potential SAG strike) really does is it slows down the recovery, even a short strike is going to lead to a further disruption of filming schedules,” said Kevin Klowden, managing economist at the Milken Institute and one of the report’s authors.
To the credit of AFTRA it looks like they’re already making significant progress with the AMPTP and will probably avoid striking all together. To the credit of SAG, although they aren’t even close to a deal with the AMPTP yet, they haven’t called for a strike authorization vote yet, which tells me they’re more focused on making a deal than thumping their chests. Let’s all hope another Hollywood strike can be avoided
