As they’ve been threatening for weeks, the Writers Guild of America went on strike at midnight:
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 4 — A strike by Hollywood writers began in New York just after midnight Monday, and negotiators for screenwriters and producers broke off talks, according to the Associated Press.
More than 12,000 screenwriters represented by the Writer Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East in the early morning hours in New York began the first industry-wide strike since writers walked out in 1988. That strike lasted five months and cost the entertainment industry an estimated $500 million.
A contract between the unions and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — which represents networks, studios and other producers — expired Wednesday night after more than three months of acrimonious negotiations. Guild leaders called for a strike to begin Monday morning. A federal mediator, who joined the talks last week, asked the sides to continue talking in a Sunday session.
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The sides have been at odds over, among other things, writers’ demands for a large increase in pay for movies and television shows released on DVD, and for a bigger share of the revenue from such work delivered over the Internet.
Let’s see how long it takes before those of us who don’t depend on television of information or entertainment to actually notice they’re gone.
[...] and then there’s the writer’s strike. [...]