California Governor Gavin Newsom said that he was “very worried” about the WGA strike, warning that “every single one of us will be impacted by this.”
At the Milken Institute Global Conference on Tuesday, Newsom also floated the possibility of his office getting involved in negotiations at some point.
“We’re not unfamiliar with labor issues, and when called in by both sides we’ll intervene, to the extent both sides are willing and interested in that,” he said.
The governor said that the work stoppage “has profound consequences direct and indirect. Every single one of us will be impacted by this, and we’re very concerned about what is going on because both sides are dug in. The stakes are high.”
Newsom said that he was “sensitive to the concerns of the writers on this, very, in terms of what streaming is doing, what the next conversation with AI is doing in this space. This is a very real and existential moment and I am very hopeful that we can extend this not beyond the 100 days of the last strike, but this extend this no more than a few weeks.”
Newsom had been monitoring negotiations through the weekend. “I’m very worried about it because those negotiations ended a lot quicker, a lot sooner than we expected.”
Talks broke down on Monday night hours before the expiration of the WGA’s basic agreement with the studios.
Newsom was participating in a Q&A with MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle, who noted that the Milken Institute estimated that the 2007-08 strike was a $2 billion loss to state economic activity.
More to come.