Tech unions found fantasy island in Second Life

25 Apr 2008 | 14:23 BST

By Mark Ballard

IF FAT CAT executives ever needed reassurance that socialist ideals were nothing but fantasy, this might be it: the international union movement is setting up a virtual centre in Second Life.

Unison, a UK union, said today it was backing the launch of Union Island, a virtual workers' movement featuring beautiful cartoon girls with big hair and tight t-shirts.

But it might not be a move to cloud cuckoo. The world's first virtual union protest at an imaginary company headquarters last year may have led to tangible results for downtrodden techies.

After IBM had arbitrarily cancelled performance bonuses in Italy, 1,853 protesters swarmed IBM's virtual headquarters in Second Life and stormed a management meeting with cartoon placards.

The head of IBM Italy, who imposed the offending employment terms, subsequently resigned, IBM workers got their bonuses back and new contracts also secured payments into a health insurance fund, said the UNI Global Union.

The union admitted that the threat of real strikes might have had some influence in bringing IBM to the negotiating table. But the virtual industrial action generated enough negative publicity for the computer giant to take note.

In February, the protesters were given an award for their ingenuity by former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

Unison said it hoped to create a "new generation of online activists". It was laying on DJs, and a virtual bar with virtual beer for the launch on 1 May, recognised as Labour Day every since British unions won the right for factory workers to go home after eight hours and rest at the weekend.

Anyone working in the tech sector might well wonder what happened. µ

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