As I said here before: The WGA is a small union which is serious about demands that the "no strike" clause be rescinded. This demand alone if won makes the significance of this strike far greater than the social weight the writers themselves. If these agreements hold solidarity with other striking unions will be more likely, at least in the entertainment industry, but we can only hope that the example spreads. This alone is enough reason for those of us on the "left" and in the labor movement to cheer the WGA for taking a significant step.
There is a summary of the contract in pdf form on-line. http://www.wga.org/contract_07/wwp_exec.pdf
>From the serious to the seriously stupid:
Ben Silverman, chief of NBC Entertainment said about the WGA picketing the Golden Globes: "Sadly . . . it feels like nerdiest, ugliest, meanest kids in the high school are trying to cancel the prom, but NBC wants to try and keep that prom alive."
This just goes to prove that the most important events in the world according to this particular Hollywood guy are awards that Hollywood gives to themselves. As Alvy Singer says in "Annie Hall," "They do nothing but give out awards. I can't believe it. Greatest Fascist Dictator - Adolf Hitler!"
By the way, I am a Grinch as far as the Academy Awards go. As far as I am concerned they should be subsumed by union run awards anyway. I stopped watching the Academy Awards when I was a kid and discovered that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts was founded as an anti-union origanization.