Taken from a TUC press release but an interesting addition to a discussion we had on ET a few weeks ago on Second Life.  I've found it interesting to see how some people have been using Second Life as an opportunity to promote real life issues.  A lighter example was a comic/art launch that some aquaintances of mine did a couple of weeks ago, and they had a well known DJ along and a gathering of a number of Welsh artists at the second life launch.

Now you can hold a union protest without even leaving your chair.

IBM conducts a significant amount of business in Second Life, reportedly investing $10million in virtual worlds this year, and its staff are very technology literate, making this unusual method of action directly relevant to the dispute.

Choosing to echo the ongoing real-world campaign in virtual reality has brought IBM's union committee RSU (Rappresentenza Sindacale Unitaria) significant international publicity, and allowed linkups with IBM workers from many other countries, including the UK and India.

Other unionists and supporters from around the world are expected to attend, and the TUC will also be sending delegates to the demonstration in solidarity with the IBM workers and their global union federation UNI.

TUC Head of International Relations, Owen Tudor, said: "Unions reinvent themselves every time bad bosses change the way they do business. IBM's virtual customers will be meeting cyber-unionists for the first time this week and firms who do the dirty on their staff can expect more and more innovative protests. New communications technologies mean we can take on global skinflints wherever they come from and whatever they do. Trade unionists are learning to log on and fight back."
 

Anyone wanting to get involved with the demonstration can sign up and find out how to download a virtual protestor's kit at www.uni-network.org/secondlife
 

The protest is also backed by the global business services union federation, UNI, and the UK's biggest union, Unite, which represents many workers in this sector.

It's a development that has certainly provoked some thought for me.  Could we have ET meet ups or seminars in Second Life?  Is it something we stay a mile away from - that adds no value - or an opportunity to explore?