The strike by the 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America to get fairer compensation for their work is generating a lot of great observations around the Web about how unions can benefit all kinds of working people.

The Associated Press tells one writer's story -- a story of insecurity at work that professionals across the country can identify with:

Diana Son, a writer for "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," said she has three children and getting residuals was the only way she could take time off after giving birth.

"It's an extremely volatile industry," said Son. "There's no job security. Residuals are an important part of our income. There's no cushion. I rely on residuals from my previous work to get me through periods when I am not working."

At the Huffington Post, Jonathan Tasini explains what the strikers are pushing back against:

For all those folks who aren't writers and get a regular paycheck, it's really important to understand the plantation-like economic model that powers--and enriches--Big Media. At any given time, 95 percent of WGA members aren't being paid a salary by Big Media. Instead, thousands of writers churn out scripts and ideas for content--most of which is never bought. You might sell a script or an idea one year and, then, not sell another product for the next 5 or 7 years. It's not because of a lack of talent. It is simply because Big Media has set up a brilliant system--it keeps a whole workforce turning out its products and doesn't have to keep them on any payroll, or pay their health care or pensions if Big Media decides not to buy what they produce...

We've seen this movie, in real life, played out across America, in industry after industry. The problem is not profitability or ability to pay. It's greed.

And at TPMCafe, Nathan Newman points out that writers aren't the only professionals who have discovered the benefits of joining together:

So you have professional writers union on strike, fighting over a quintisential [sic] new economy issue: digital residual rights.  A lot of folks argue that unions are well and good for unskilled workers, but professional skilled workers really don't benefit from unions.

Obviously. Hollywood unions, teachers, nurses, Boeing engineers and other professional refute that argument.  Sports unions are also some of the strongest unions out there.  Oddly, until the New Deal, the assumption was that unions were really ONLY for skilled workers, that only they had unique enough skills to make collectively withholding their labor effective.  It's actually a modern conceit that sees skilled work and unions as incompatible, since the historic assumption was the exact reverse.

Change to Win Chair Anna Burger sent a letter of support to WGA members today, and the thoughts and support of all the working people of CtW are with the writers as they walk the picket lines.