Trade Unions International Day of Action in SL
by Alphaville Herald on 07/10/08 at 8:18 am
by Sigmund Leominster
October 7th, 2008, has been designated as a day of action by international trade union organizations. The World Day for Decent Work is billed as “a broad global mobilisation involving a large number of people and a wide range of activities.” The concept of “decent work” was defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) back in 1999 as:
… productive work for women and men in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Decent work involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income; provides security in the workplace and social protection for workers and their families; offers better prospects for personal development and encourages social integration; gives people the freedom to express their concerns, to organize and to participate in decisions that affect their lives; and guarantees equal opportunities and equal treatment for all.
The World Day has three themes around which it is organized: Rights at Work, Solidarity, and Ending Poverty and Inequality.
On the eve of the event, I met with trades unionist Johninnit Ni, who in real life works for the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in the UK. He was sat alone and working on some final preparations. I asked him how he thought the event would go.
“Well – really not sure how tomorrow will go. A lot of it is last minute but looks like it may be pretty interesting. We have visitors tomorrow from all over. We have the chair of Dalit Solidarity, which is an interesting campaign on untouchables’ right to work, plus people from campaign groups and unionists from Africa and Asia. Then some are going off into the wider world to spread the word. It’s the first time this day has been organized internationally.”
I asked about the event in the real world.
“In RL there are hundreds of events in loads of countries. There’s a map at http://www.wddw.org/-English-. It’s organized by the international trade union congress, drawing in unions and campaign groups from all over world. What we do here will be a lot smaller, as we’re still finding our feet here. But we’re getting some amazing connections going. It’s little sparks that make you think there could be a huge bonfire out there in a couple of years.”
“We had two union organizers in a meeting here, one from US and one UK and they found they were facing the same US union busting company so could swap notes! That kind of contact you can’t really put a value on 
It would never happen offline.”
So I asked if he thought the Second life environment offered any special features for international trades unions.
“Not yet – early days. Unions are hardly early tech adopters. (There’s) little money and they move slowly. But we’re trying to learn from where businesses are already going. This kind of thing is going to mainstream in business and we should be prepared.”
Union Island is owned, not surprisingly, by a collective of people. It is a project of the TUC, UNI Global Union, and the New Unionism Network. Johninnit explained how it is important to have a group approach to Second Life union activity.
“Lots of unions around the world have different ideas about what SL might be useful for but we recognized that doing things separately was a bit silly. Look at all the empty university sims for example – a network would be so much better. So we are pooling efforts in an open coalition and we hope more will join all the time. If we pool resources, learning, and – crucially – community, we’ll be in a better position to succeed on any one of our aims.”
I asked if he saw much politics in the Second Life community.
“Not so as I’ve seen, disappointingly from the US given current campaign. There are activist groups and some parties set up stands but I’ve not been to anything myself. Generally asleep whilst it happens on SLT.”
For the Second Life event, the organizers have planned a number of in-world presentations by RL activists. At 4:00 am SLT (12:00 GMT) Meena Varma of the Dalit Solidarity Network will be talking about the situation for the world’s casteless people and how discrimination in employment perpetuates the injustice of ‘untouchability.’ Dave Tucker from War on Want will follow at 5:00 am SLT (13:00 GMT) to talk about the role of NGOs (non-government organizations) and unions can help in the fight for decent work and against poverty. Then at 6:00 am SLT (14:00 GMT), “UNI Global Union staff and supporters will be taking the message of World Day for Decent Work out to Second Life.”
I left Johninnit to finish putting together the freebie boxes that visitors will be able to pick up on the day. For him it was midnight and the World Day for Decent Work had begun.
Dalit Solidarity Network: http://www.dsnuk.org/
International Labour Organisation: http://www.ilo.org/global/lang–en/index.htm
Trades Union Congress: http://www.tuc.org.uk/
UNI Global Network: http://www.union-network.org/
Union Island SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Union%20Island/94/174/28/
War on Want: http://www.waronwant.org/
World day for Decent Work site: http://www.wddw.org
johninnit Ni
Oct 7th, 2008
Cheers Sigmund – it was nice to meet you. Hope you had a good World Day for Decent Work yourself!
Lord Kamina
Oct 7th, 2008
Unions are a blight upon the free market, as they incessantly increase wages to ridiculous levels, demand more and more from the employer at the risk of bringing their own industry to bankruptcy, and intimidate and influence the voting practices of union workers. If you want an example of what I’m talking about, take a look at the United Auto Workers.
Unions are simply antiquated bullies who have become totally irrelevant because of laws on the books protecting worker rights so instead they just want more and more power.
ffffffffffffffff
Oct 7th, 2008
lol unions
solidarity forever
Oct 7th, 2008
How surprising that someone who calls himself “Lord” would spout such tired old nonsense about labor unions.
Cheers to Johninnit for organizing this and other outstanding programs in SL.
Alazarin
Oct 8th, 2008
What a shame I missed the WDDW day at Union Island. Only found out about it today. I’ll have to pop over and check it out.
As a member of the Musicians’ Union (London Branch) I know about trades unions being slow adopters of new technology! I remember offering to design a website for the Musicians’ Union years ago when the internet was a new thing, being turned down and then seeing the all-new Musicians’ Union website announced in the quarterly magazine six months later.
Rafe
Oct 8th, 2008
I agree with Lord, Unions artificially hold wages above market clearing levels and actually cause unemployment to rise by making it illegal for two people to engage in whatever type of wage negotiation those two people desire, this is not freedom. This has the unintended effect of actually hurting the poor and unskilled the most as they cannot offer their services below labor fiat value, not to mention is accelerates the development of automation that makes labor obsolete.
If employers, union bosses, and employee’s FREELY enter into union contracts then that is a different issue. But it’s more commen that union power is fundamentally backed by government force and thus is essentially a primal leveraging tactic for some group that establishes a monopoly on labor supply. If one is essentially using the promise of coercion to negotiate I only recognize the legitmacy of such agency to the extent i recognize the legitamacy of somebody holding a gun to my head while demanding money, a primordial mob whoe’s efficacy relies on violence.
IntLibber Brautigan
Oct 9th, 2008
While I uphold the fundamental right of individuals to collectively negotiate for better wages and working conditions (IBEW member myself) I do recognise that many unions have gone beyond this remit, and also operate from fundamental misunderstandings of economics and business, or see their business as predating upon the businesses that employ their members. When unions recognise that the success of the businesses their members work for is fundamental to their own success, and take steps to help ensure that success in a proactive manner (many trade unions like the IBEW manage apprenticeship training programs to produce skilled workers, for instance), then both can win.
There is a new law that the unions are trying to get passed, which will do away with secret ballotting to organize a union shop, and instead enable unions to come to workers homes one by one and bully them into joining. This bill not only needs to be opposed, but we need to bring an end to closed shops altogether. The individual should always have the freedom to belong to a union or not no matter where he or she works.
Solidarity Forever
Oct 9th, 2008
@IntLiar: “There is a new law that the unions are trying to get passed, which will do away with secret ballotting to organize a union shop, and instead enable unions to come to workers homes one by one and bully them into joining.”
Bzzt. Wrong. But thanks for playing.
http://tinyurl.com/46du97
Rafe
Oct 9th, 2008
Yes intlibber, i believe it’s called Card Check. There is no rational reason i can think of that Union officials need to know the identity of those that voted against them, except one nefarious one. Considering the history of violence associated with some union tactics i’de be very skeptical that this is necessary for any benevolent reason. If unions wish to sell themselves to some labor pool fine, but if the vote fails that should be sufficient.