Protest on IBM's SL campus causes exit of top IBM exec?

In late September, IBM's vast Second Life campus was inundated by an international coalition of labor union supporters, who arrived as avatars to protest a paycut levied against staffers in the company's Italy division.  (Among them, a pro-labor banana and at least two off-message geometric shapes.)  In recent days, there seems to be movement in the situation:  reports have confirmed that IBM Italy CEO Andrea Pontremoli has resigned his post.  In an announcement last week, protest organizer UniGlobal Union claims IBM has returned to the bargaining table, and describes Pontremoli's departure as a direct result of their Second Life action:

"It seems our Virtual action had an impact on his role at IBM," the site crows.  A statement to members of UniGlobal's protest e-mail list goes even further: "Your involvement with the protest in Second Life, your news coverage of the events and your ideas to pursue fighting in 'first' and 'second life' have really helped tremendously." 

Maybe, but IBM denies the relation.

Local Tech Wire quotes an IBM representative saying, "Andrea Pontremoli has left to pursue other interests... [t]here is no link between his decision and the matters you outline [i.e., the Second Life strike.]"  I'm checking with UniGlobal to why they claimed the SL strike led to Pontremoli's resignation, but whether that's truly the case or just an incorrect inference, it's fascinating they'd make the attribution at all.

Comments

[Jaymin Carthage]

I think UniGlobal's assertation is wishful thinking. The strike was well attended by my count (even through it didn't even register on Tateru's) but not by IBMers. It seemed mostly to be the "A strike in Second Life? How cool!" brigade. As your own coverage showed, many of them didn't even know what it was about. I don't know that the story was covered by any news source likely to be read by IBM investors. In my mind the whole "strike-in-second-life" ploy was a clever trick to get media attention to their issues, much like companies opening up flashy sims that later remain graveyards. :-)

[Jaymin Carthage]

I think UniGlobal's assertation is wishful thinking. The strike was well attended by my count (even through it didn't even register on Tateru's) but not by IBMers. It seemed mostly to be the "A strike in Second Life? How cool!" brigade. As your own coverage showed, many of them didn't even know what it was about. I don't know that the story was covered by any news source likely to be read by IBM investors. In my mind the whole "strike-in-second-life" ploy was a clever trick to get media attention to their issues, much like companies opening up flashy sims that later remain graveyards. :-)