September 28, 2007

IBM Italian Union Labor Strike (in SL)

This hasn't been covered by the MSM as far as I can tell, but apparently IBM is reducing the pay for some of its employees in Italy as labor union negotiations have failed. Many of the affected IBMers held a protest in SL declaring a general strike.

The strike is interesting not only because it took place in SL, which has its own meaning in terms of publicity for the cause and the ability for participants to get together, but because IBM has a huge stake in SL as a corporation. IBM has tried to embrace SL, I think believing that it has an opportunity for first-mover advantages by investing time, money, and other resources in the development of that virtual world and its economy and technology. But the strike is a reminder of how the lines between RL and VR are disappearing.

Posted by josuah at September 28, 2007 6:26 PM UTC+00:00