In the middle of the night last night, my mind wandering as I tried to coax Lucia back to sleep, I realized some concern for the strikers. I've been saying all along that the strike is going to impact shows through Fall 2008, and also that the TV programming will only recover that fast if the strike is resolved in late winter/early spring. But, as is typical of a consumer, I was thinking of how the strike affects me, and not the union members themselves. In particular, I wonder now how long the union is going to be able to provide support to their members. Do they have reserves for five months? Six?

I expect that the Writer's Guild is unusual in that a significant portion of its members may have other employment, but as an union, it will still have measures to provide financial assistance to its members during a strike. How long can that continue before either the members are forced to look for other income or the union takes solidarity donations from others?

I don't expect any member to step forward and blab any exact information, as it would be valuable to the negotiations (in a strike, the employers have to believe that the lockout will continue forever if need be, in order to be effective), but I wanted to express my concern for the financial ramifications.