Strikes have a feel about them, and this one has that feel. It's a clear sense that when the sides are talking they're not really talking. Their eyes are on the clock, waiting out the inevitable.
For months, Hollywood writers and TV and movie producers have been talking around a lot of issues, and some progress was made. But it was on peripheral matters.
But neither side was going to budge on the hardcore, blood-money issues: residuals on DVD sales and newer media, such as internet downloads. Neither did.
As of late last night, when talks ended, the Writers Guild of America was just as adamant that DVD residual payments be increased and that those increases be applied to the newer media. Producers, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, refused to consider either idea.
As early as tomorrow, writers could be setting up picket lines, and other unions, notably the Teamsters, could be honoring them, with the effect of immediately shutting down production on an awful lot of what airs on television.
Interestingly, by most predictions, a strike would last less than a month. Yet both sides appear to be hunkering down for a longer one. The networks, which have been stockpiling episodes of favorite scripted shows, contend they're prepared to go through the fall and into early January without major disruptions to the schedules, or that's their hope.
The next important development will be a meeting called by writers for tonight at the Los Angeles Convention Center at which WGA leaders will lay out where things stand with the talks. The meeting could end with a call to strike.
But that could come earlier or later. Two weeks ago, guild members authorized the leaders to call a strike when they saw fit. The WGA represents 12,000 writers in all, three-fourths of whom work on the West Coast.
It's possible that the two sides could come to terms today, but that would seem unlikely at this point. They could also agree to hold off on a strike for a couple of days in the hopes that one or both sides pulls back on its demands.
That could well happen. Neither side wants a strike, and most observers think the network have lot to lose, more than the writers.
Stay tuned.
