At year's end the Writers Guild of America has issued a statement on the state of negotiations on the strike, which is in its sixth week. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said today on their web site that the WGA strike organizers have cost their members more than the WGA's $151 million proposal package. From ATPMP stite:

''It's official: The people in charge at the WGA have led working writers into a strike that has now cost those working writers more in salary and benefits than the WGA's organizers ever expected to gain from the strike.''

Dana Harris of Variety's WGA Strike Blog writes, ''To be clear, that's the AMPTP's calculation of how much writers have lost in wages and benefits over eight weeks compared with the cost of the WGA's proposed package over three years. That seems something less than compelling to me, but hey, it's their press release.''

The WGA statement after the jump ...

''Big media walked away from the table and refuses to negotiate. The media conglomerates know that the core issue in these negotiations is new media. Their current proposals would cause writers even more economic harm in the future than they claim this strike has caused. To sidestep this fact, they erroneously claim we are focused on other issues. The conglomerates are responsible for creating the economic havoc. They should put their energies into making a fair deal with writers rather than issuing misleading statements.''