Writers, studios prepare for possible strike
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Even as writers and major studios were making a last-ditch effort to avert a walkout early Monday morning, both sides were busily preparing for all-out war.
Union workers were furiously assembling picket signs Friday as strike captains contacted scores of television and film writers to tell them where to show up for demonstrations expected to sprout across Hollywood and in New York.
Studios were maneuvering to keep their production pipelines flowing, ratcheting up pressure on truck drivers and other members of the Teamsters union to keep them working in the event of a strike.
Teamster leaders have urged their members not to cross picket lines in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America, which represents about 12,000 TV and film scribes.
At the same time, the Writers Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers were prodded late Friday by a federal mediator to meet Sunday at 10 a.m. to try to hammer out a new contract and avert a debilitating strike.
-- Richard Verrier, Claudia Eller and Maria Elena Fernandez
