Strike! Strike!

Italian employees of IBM are planning a virtual strike



From the article:

What can be used to motivate people to buy products or services can, just as easily, be used to inform and motivate workers in a global economy that they can take global collective action. They could even test out industrial action tactics in relative safety. It could be a tantalising prospect for a committed union activist. It will be interesting to see what actual impact the virtual industrial action has in the real world, and how IBM handles it.


The corporate world has come into SL, it seems natural that labor should follow. Is there any chance this could develop into anything other than a publicity stunt? Can it even succeed as a publicity stunt?

is protesting/demonstrating a tos violation?

Oh, goodness no. We've done it almost every time Phillip has made a speech of any sort in the world! Which could be why he stopped doing it.... >.<

/me starts making plans to form a company supplying strikebreakers.

I think.. you just found a good use for griefers. Although if you play your cards right, they'll work for free!

i always suspected you were a republican.

Uhm , If I were unhappy and wanted to protest, I'd advise my members to do it in the Real World. This is ridiculous.

but they are in italy.
and ibm workers in the usa most likely cannot strike irl.
granted there are better ways they could assist than striking in sl.

A smarter businessman would be opening up kiosks selling pitchforks and torches....

Gee he really IS a Republican....

In my younger days, before I came to realize there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between them and the Democrats. Both of them have their hot button issues they use to play their masses but the differences are mainly cosmetic. Now I am a politically homeless Paleo-con with strong libertarian leanings.

If working for IBM sucks then perhaps the wise thing to do would be to look for work elsewhere rather than strike. If you are productive and provide a valuable service then you have a good chance of finding work elsewhere.

In this age where a person can start a project in the USA, hire out parts to a programmer in India, a graphic artist in Russia, and a web developer in Korea, you can find work if you want and get paid a good wage. Especially if you are already working online.

Yes, it isn’t easy, but they wouldn’t call it work otherwise. Look how many people make a money simply by farming gold and leveling characters in World of Warcraft? ROFL (See, there is work for even the low skilled among the people of the net.)

Of course, people are still free to strike if they wish. Most of the industrialized world affords us this freedom. However, I doubt this action will produce serious results. Unions have been steadily losing power becase more and more people realise there is a whole world of opportunity available to them. It is a good time to be alive and it will most likely get better as technology advances.

tbh, who cares if they aren`t getting some of the big pile of cash? u knew it so why work there in the first place?

if they want normal residents to attend, they better throw in another reason, an "strike" against LL aswell for them selfs as i`ll bet enough ppl are bored