Italian union members at IBM are taking a novel form of action, to highlight their current dispute over pay cuts. Later this month, they’re planning on mounting the world’s first virtual reality union demo, in trendy 3D world Second Life.

IBM put great stock in their lovely corporate headquarters in Second Life, which makes them a a good target for a virtual campaign, publicising the dispute to IBM customers and clients visiting SL. The novelty angle too should get lots of publicity for the dispute.

The action is going to take place, flash mob style, at a currently secret time, date and place. If you’d like to join the picket in solidarity with the IBM workers, you can sign up to the mailing list at the UNI Global website (which also has a helpful “absolute beginners’ guide” to using Second Life), and they’ll keep you in touch.

Then pop over to the UNI virtual office to pick up your kit (also available at Tigmoo Corner and several other union Second Life hangouts). The kit has a virtual T-shirt for you to wear, virtual banners for you to wave, a giant rotating fish for you to… well, I’m not sure what that’s for, but I hope it’ll become apparent later, and instructions on what to do next.

Should be a fun event to get involved in (for union webby trainspotters like me), and an interesting development in global solidarity. Great if you speak some Italian I guess, but no worries if you don’t – there should be a good number of people there from around the world, trades unionists, activists and international IBM employees. Indeed, this could be the first steps in building an international union network at IBM, from union members from this multinational employer’s locations all around the world.

Hope to see you there – if only because this is one union picket that definitely won’t get rained on!

UPDATE: Wagner James Au at the excellent New World Notes has a short interview on the action with union avatar UNIglobalunion Oh – the first virtual union press interview I’ve seen so far!