The Alphaville Herald

Sweatshop Discovered in Second Life Mieto Sim

by Alphaville Herald on 07/03/05 at 2:14 am

Do not meddle in the affairs of Gnome Factory Owners, for they are subtle and quick to anger. Pictured: Owner Peter Guillaume.

By Neal Stewart

Mieto (Mature) (176, 6) — Second Life citizens have been shocked to discover that an illegal sweatshop has been operating for several weeks in the Mieto sim. The so-called ‘Gnome Factory’ – manufactured by Peter Guillame – was identified after suspicious Mieto residents raised the alarm in SL forums. Since then the factory has become a poster child for virtual-world corporate exploitation. The story of that child is a veritable catalogue of human rights abuses and and it is a catalogue written with a pen dipped gingerly in the blood and sweat of hundreds of the exploited workers who are featured in said child.

Placing a Gnome in the home and garden is considered by many to bring good luck. But workers at the Gnome Factory – surrounded by gnomes – paint a grim picture of their working conditions. Like all sweatshops, theirs is owned by a corporation seeking to reduce costs by subcontracting manufacturing tasks overseas (or inter-sim). Here it can be ‘legally convenient’ to give workers sub-standard salaries and benefits while demanding more work and longer hours. In this case an arctic sim seems to have been chosen because the continual snow-fall makes it harder for Lindens to see.

Workers at the Gnome Factory claim that they receive $L 1 to $L 3 for each 5-minute gnome produced – with the top three most-productive workers for the week winning splits (70%, 25%, 5%) of the ‘donation pot’ (which stood in at $L 3300 last week). This amounts to less than one-third the cost of living, which can be easily calculated using a formula that takes into account average costs for basic needs like food, housing, education, sex balls, health care, clothing, bling, energy, water, genitals and transport. One factory worker claims that they are also subjected to mandatory pregnancy tests and denied drinking water and sick days. “We are also subjected to mandatory pregnancy tests and denied drinking water and sick days,” he said. In The Sims Online where gnome-manufacturing originated, workers were permitted to take bathroom breaks. In Second Life however gnome-factory employees are simply handed an empty 7-Up bottle when they walk through the door. Employees – newbies and veteran residents – are monitored by a security camera that randomly berates them and dispenses change to workers who look busy.

One employee I spoke with – Sweets2 Tapioca – was clearly a plant by the company. The fact that she was at the top of the leaderboard should also raise a few eyebrows. “I love it [the gnome factory]… It has a lot of cool people that come in here and the owner, Peter, is great … And you can make a few L’s in the process…” she said.

Used syringes are scattered throughout the rows of ceramic, bearded, grinning red-and-blue gnomes – the management often ‘locks down’ and administers amphetamines to keep employees awake for 48 and 72-hour shifts. “There’s no clocks on the walls. They try to confuse us with modern art like the Salvador Dali painting with the melting clocks”, one worker said. “But my memory persists. All they have done is melted the clock of my spirit.”

Illegal immigrants from third-world country There.com are often found working at the factory. They claim that managers confiscated their passports and that they’re threatened with teleportation if their work does not meet quality-assurance standards. Ironically, many Gnome Factory workers are themselves gnome refugees from World of Warcraft. Their is a common misconception in the community about +15 skill bonuses to Engineering.

In SL the hammer and pick…le is fast becoming the symbol for Capitalism gone mad. Pictured: Employee, Anjelle Lumiere. Gnome-hat in right-foreground.

Similarly, new employees are often confused about the work-environment conditions. One newbie recently arrived at work in the minus-35 snow sim wearing his club uniform – a pair of goldfish-bowl boots and latex orange thong – and subsequently became hypothermic. In his delirium he designed and began mass-producing a new line of ‘pimp gnomes’. When staff discovered what he was doing he was savagely beaten with a Tringo-scoreboard. But beatings are the least of employee worries, another argues, “They change the local audio stream to punish us if the production-line slows down. Mainly Country and Western. Last… last night it…” he says, breaking down in tears, “Last night… it… it was… Keith Urban.”

While the Herald was researching this story, factory owner Peter Guillaume arrived – decked out in black, with shades and boots. Despite trying his best to appear congenial, he lost his patience at one point and, horrifically, set fire to one of his employees. Laughing, he suggested they ‘stop drop and roll’.

Peter Guillaume: It’s [the Gnome Factory] basically my way of giving back to SL.
Neal Stewart: Have you received a lot from Second Life?
Peter Guillaume: Well, friends and such. I spend quite a lot of time in-game so I must be enjoying it. LOL. So I figure I could pass it on. People helping people.
Neal Stewart: What do you think is the best thing about Second Life?
Peter Guillaume: The people.
Neal Stewart: You mean, for cheap labour?
Peter Guillaume: Yeah. Without them – might as well play Sims 2.
Neal Stewart: Who buys most of the gnomes?
Peter Guillaume: I ship them off to NAMGLA [North American Man/Gnome Love Association].

A factory employee IM’s me: “I like big gnomes and I can not lie. You other brothers can’t deny…”

Representatives from the Neualtenberg Projekt yesterday contacted Gnome Factory workers to offer their support in trying to organize a union. One representative, fearing management reprisals, spoke with us on the condition of anonymity: “We had a gardening accident on Saturday and one of our Lenin statues crushed a gnome. We found a hand-written note among the shards of porcelain: ‘I need teh helpings. I have exploited porblem.’ We just that knew we had to do something.”

The Gnome Factory (Mieto 176, 6) donation pot currently stands at $L 1044.