Burbank is bracing for a possible strike

BURBANK — With the countdown to the possible Screen Actors Guild strike approaching on Monday, city officials fear that losing the actors would hit an already ailing local economy.

The main points of contention for guild members are future salaries and residuals in new media, according to the guild’s website.

All Burbank businesses will have to cope with another revenue hit if the actors strike, at a time when gas and food prices are soaring, City Manager Mary Alvord said.

“It is amazing what kind of repercussions a strike has on everybody from restaurants to hairdressers,” she said. “The trickle-down effect is very real.”

The city is struggling with lingering debt — close to $2.5 billion — that was caused by the recent Writers Guild of America strike that concluded Feb. 12, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation.

Filming in Burbank had been down in the year’s first quarter, compared with January to March 2007, which is most likely a hangover from the writers strike and lingering worries about the actors guild, according to the city’s Redevelopment Agency.

“If the guild strikes, it will have an even bigger impact than the writers strike,” Kyser said.

“There is so much uncertainty right now that is rippling through all the suppliers in the industry, business owners don’t know what business will look like in the next few months.”

Although the major studios did not issue any comment, Kyser said they are wrapping up production in case of another interruption.

“A lot of studios are furling their sails and winding up production on films, and television show producers are frantically filming to try to build a little bit of inventory,” he said. “Everybody is just very nervous.”

The chances of a SAG strike were only exacerbated by a deal made by its sister union, the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists in May.

Actors were not happy with the agreement and felt betrayed by the group’s 44,000 overlapping guild members, said Gary Olson, president of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce.

“The de facto strike in our industry is becoming worse with each day that we are without an agreement because the Screen Actors Guild remains focused on defeating another union’s deal instead of making its own,” said Jessie Hiestand, spokesman for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. “Tens of thousands of crew members and local businesses are paying the price for this misguided strategy of the guild’s Hollywood leadership.”

Entertainment industry workers are training themselves in new careers because of this year’s interruption in filming, said Brady Griffin, director of the Burbank WorkForce Connection.

“A lot of people who rely on the film industry came to us during the writers strike to develop new careers because they were worried about how long it would take to resolve,” he said.

“I would expect even more people if the actors walk . . . people will probably say that they just can’t handle it anymore.”