A View from Big Blue: An IBM insider's surprising perspective on last week's labor protest against IBM

As international union activists converged on IBM's Second Life campus last week, staff and management watched at a distance, refusing public comment.  However, a longtime IBM staffer with colleagues working on the SL campus recently got in touch with me, and on condition of anonymity, offered their insider's view on how the strike was perceived from within the company.  According to my source, it was generally seen as a positive development, justifying their substantial investment in Second Life and other "3D web" platforms:

“[S]ince we're gung-ho on virtual worlds technology, this kind of event in the news only goes to show everyone (including our upper management) that there's a real need for us to be here and for us to be on top of it." The source believes it will actually encourage IBM to continue its heavy activity in Second Life.

Still, they kept the strike itself at arm's length: “But yes, as you might expect, upper management saw the need to come up with a 'response plan', etc. (One of the first things you realize when you work for a place like IBM is that Dilbert is a documentary.)"

The response strategy was uncomplicated:  "[IBM] management saw the need to come up with a response plan, which was: ignore the strikers. Have everyone say 'no comment' a lot. And deal with any problems (like strikers turning into griefers) as they happen. Which didn't happen.

“The only real snafu during the entire event was when someone on the IBM end accidentally set most of the IBM Business Center sim to No Entry. This got picked up by [the strikers’] blog and reported as ‘IBM is trying to block us out!’” In fact (according to my source) IBM workers frantically raced behind the scenes to re-open the business center, to let the protesters in.

As for the protest and its goal of rescinding a pay cut affecting IBM's Italian staff: "Was it a success? I think they shot their big 15 minute wad of fame with the initial announcement of their plan to strike in Second Life. The actual strike itself did not do much for the cause. But it really was interesting to see it happen. Although in terms of actual effectiveness it was pretty much a big fat zero."

Comments

[Jaymin Carthage]

In many ways the union made as poor a use of Second Life as many of these big businesses that come it, do a big flashy sim, that is subsequently forever empty. They got their publicity. Pictures of a lot of people waving signs in a lot of blogs. Most of them weren't IBMers, and, from my experience, most work going on wasn't even aware of their presence. If their aim was to enact change or exert pressure to further their goals, I'm not quite sure how it was a success.