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American Morning

Writer Guilds Strike Deadline Approaches

Aired May 01, 2001 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And we're talking about our top story, the clock ticking toward a possible strike by Hollywood writers. The contract for the Writers Guild of America expires at 12:01 a.m. Pacific time. If no agreement is reached and the writers go on strike, television and movie production would be halted, and the start of the fall television season could be delayed.

This is of great concern to the mayor of Los Angeles who says that a writers strike would have a devastating effect on the city's economy. According to a city-funded study, a strike would cause a $6.9 billion in damage to the local economy, including the loss of nearly 82,000 jobs. Unemployment would rise from 4.8 percent to 6.9 percent, according to the study.

And we have the mayor with us. Mayor Richard Riordan joining us from Los Angeles to talk about those numbers.

Mr. Mayor, good morning. Good to have you with us.

RICHARD RIORDAN, MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES: Well, good morning.

I'm very optimistic that we're not going to have a strike. The chief negotiators, Nick Counter and John Wells called me yesterday. They seemed upbeat. I think that they love our city. They don't want to see the kind of recession that a strike would cause happen to Los Angeles.

KAGAN: This would be good news, indeed. Could you give us any more insight as to kind of progress the two sides are making?

RIORDAN: Well, they both seemed very, very optimistic yesterday, and, you know, it's unfortunate on these negotiations, but things have to be done at the last minute. They have to...

KAGAN: Why is that?

RIORDAN: I think because unless you're, you know, under a deadline -- it's like writing your term paper in school. You have all semester to write it, but you finally write it the last day, and the pressure is on them at the end, and that's when the hard, hard work happens.

KAGAN: Well, that's fine for the people who are writers -- and in a second, we'll talk about the actors, but your concern and what you're trying to bring attention to is that we're not just talking about the entertainment industry, especially in Southern California. This thing has a ripple effect and would affect people that you would never even associate with the entertainment industry.

RIORDAN: Oh, it goes all over the city from florists to restaurants even to the value of real estate in the city. There isn't a job in the city that wouldn't be affected by a strike.

KAGAN: And then also the concern maybe of a long-term impact. I know when there was the SAG strike with the commercials that a lot of that business simply left Southern California, went to states that have right-to-work clauses and also across the border to Canada.

RIORDAN: Yeah, particularly in the 1998 strike, which was devastating. A lot of the productions left for Canada, and a good part of them have never come back. Canada, which had virtually no talented crews up there to do pictures, now has over a hundred professional crews that can do television and motion pictures.

KAGAN: If writers and producers can't get their act together and avoid a strike, that's only the first hurdle for Southern California. Coming up in June, you have the actors. Which one concerns you more?

RIORDAN: Well, I think most people thought the writers would, but, right now, I'm am optimistic on both. I've talked to the lead negotiators on both, Bill Daniels, who is head of the Actors' Guild, and, of course, John Wells, who's head of the Writers Guild, and Nick Counter who will represent the studios on both negotiations, and these are people who are very positive-minded people, who want to come to compromises and, obviously, a compromise means that both sides will not be totally satisfied, but that's the way you make things happen.

KAGAN: Mr. Mayor, bigger -- bigger picture here from your time in office and what you've been able to see of the economy in Los Angeles, do you think that Southern California needs to diversify even more so that it's not just held hostage as to what the entertainment industry is going to do?

RIORDAN: Well, actually, we're very lucky. We are very, very diversified. We lost most of the big companies, particularly the aerospace companies, over 10 years ago, and now, for example, we've passed Chicago in manufacturing, New York in fashion. Our multimedia industry is growing faster than New York and Silicon Valley together.

So we are quite diversified, except for the one item, the entertainment industry. But we'll survive it, but, in the meantime, it's going to be a heck of a blow to a lot of people, a lot of workers who need their jobs.

KAGAN: And, hopefully, they can get their act together so that people aren't impacted in that way. Mayor...

RIORDAN And I think...

KAGAN: Go ahead.

RIORDAN: I think they will.

KAGAN: Mayor Richard Riordan. Thanks for coming in today. Thanks, Mayor.

RIORDAN: Thanks, Daryn.

KAGAN: Good to see you.

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