Hollywood Writers' Strike Would Affect Thousands of New Yorkers

New York, NY —

The Hollywood writers' strike expected to begin Monday will affect some 2,000 New York-based writers who work on late-night comedy shows, soap operas, and series like "Law and Order."

REPORTER: Adam Brooks is a screenwriter and a member of the executive council for the Writers' Guild East. He says if there's a strike, union members will be required to do more than just stop writing.

BROOKS: You can't talk to the producers of the studio about the script until the strike's over. You can't pitch any new ideas. So what a lot of screenwriters do during a strike is, they write "spec" scripts, which they then bring on the marketplace when the strike is over.

REPORTER: One of the key issues in the stalled contract talks has been the money writers get when TV episodes are sold or streamed over the Internet. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has so far refused to boost those payments, known as residuals.

The two sides have agreed to meet tomorrow with a federal mediator in a last-ditch effort to avoid a strike.