date: 26 September 2007

embargo: For immediate release

TUC backs 'virtual reality' union protest

Unions across the globe will be setting up the first ever cyber-picket line in Second Life - the virtual reality world - tomorrow (Thursday) as Italian IBM workers protest against their employer's decision to slash bonuses worth up to 1,000 Euros each.

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.union-network.org/secondlife

Notes to editors:

- 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.

Contacts:

Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248; M: 07778 158175; E: media@tuc.org.uk

Press release (400 words) issued 26 Sep 2007