Los Angeles area economy could take a US$380 million hit if the strike continues as long as the 1988 labor action, which lasted about 22 weeks, an economist told the city council before it passed the resolution.

"To reiterate, these losses are real losses. There are real individuals who feel this pain and have difficulty because of it," said Jerry Nickelsburg with the UCLA Anderson Forecast.

However, Nickelsburg said the impact is still very modest in terms of the overall Los Angeles economy. "US$380 million equal one-tenth of 1 percent of the Los Angeles economy," he said.

Jack Kyser, an economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said the pain of the Writers Guild of America strike, which is now in its 7th week, is "growing each day."

"For the city of Los Angeles, you have significant risk because of the industry's concentration in and around the community of Hollywood," Kyser said.

The Motion Picture Association of America, the Hollywood trade association representing major movie studios, submitted a statement to the city council, saying "the economic consequences of the strike cannot be measured solely by wages."

Negotiations between the Writers Guild of America (WGA), the writers' union, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents film studios and TV networks, have stalled and no further talks are scheduled.

The writers' primary issue in the labor dispute is pay for material that is distributed on-line or through other new media outlets. Talks broke off last week over the guild's demand for extending its jurisdiction over so-called unscripted series and animated programs.

WGA chief negotiator John Bowman told reporters yesterday that the union is talking deals with several small independent producers so that at least some of its members could return to work soon.

Earlier reports have said that the writers union was trying to go around the AMPTP and negotiate individually with the studios to take advantage of the cracks between them.