The 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) will strike on Monday after talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) broke down on Wednesday. However, negotiations will continue through the weekend and the strike may be canceled if an agreement is reached in the meantime.

"We are very disappointed with ... the action they (WGA members) took," said Nicholas Counter, president of the AMPTP. "Their press conference was full of falsehoods, misstatements and inaccuracies, and we'll respond at an appropriate time."

The WGA are pushing for more residuals from new media distribution (such films or TV shows sold online), while producers reject the guild's demands as unworkable and too expensive. In 1988, a 22-week walkout by the WGA delayed the start of that year's fall television season and cost the entertainment industry an estimated $500 million. This time, billions may be lost, according to some estimates. It's enough to note that the motion picture and TV industry generates $30 billion in annual economic activity for Los Angeles County alone.

"Everybody knows what a DVD costs and a writer gets four to five cents for a DVD sale," WGA member Bryce Zabel, a screenwriter, said Thursday to AFP. "We've asked for eight. And they've said that's outrageous." The requested compensation package would cost about $220 million over three years, a small fraction of the around $24 billion in revenues generated by U.S. DVD sales and rentals over the last year.

"The studios made it clear that they would rather shut down this town than reach a fair and reasonable deal," said Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America West.

The Teamsters may also join in the strike. If the Teamsters' 4,500 truck drivers, casting directors and location managers refuse to cross picket lines, it would cause an immediate disruption. It's well known that the Teamsters maintain that their members have the right to refuse to cross picket lines of other unions without being penalized by their employers. "If we abandon our union brothers and sisters now, we abandon the very core principles of trade unionism," said Teamsters President James P. Hoffa.

Meanwhile, the ABC suggested that writers who wanted to work through the strike could resign from the WGA or convert their membership to nonvoting status, something called a "financial core" membership.