I missed this one. Apparently last September IBM’s Italian workers protested in Second Life about a recent pay deal. The protest focussed on the IBM business centre in Second Life and more than 1,850 people are said to have taken part.
Perhaps the weirdest twist, though, is that the protest went on to win an award for its contribution to web culture.
And a most entertaining day it was too. I reported on the protest here and here for XpertHR.
XpertHR’s Mark Crail was there and reported it on our Employment Intelligence blog.
Why is it weird that they won an award? They were able to successfully translate union organization tactics into a virtual world, with real-life results (at least in terms of attention, although they claim success at http://www.union-network.org/uniwebmasters.nsf/slibm?openform).
Sounds like a significant achievement.
perhaps not weird, then, but it is a bit like the Miners’ Strike getting an award…