Picketing the Matrix

Italy's First New Economy Strike

On a cold and rainy Thursday morning, under the industrial grey of a Milanese sky, the workers of the Matrix, the company that produces and manages Virgilio, Italy's most successful portal, took to the streets to protest against the decision to cut a third of its workforce, in what has been described across the Italian mediascape as the first old-style strike of the new economy.

The ingredients that have led to the dispute are all too familiar these days - to be found replicating across the nodal points of the Internet economy like a virulent computer virus unleashed not by malicious hackers, but by analysts, economists and boards of directors. In reflection of current market trends and company debts amounting to 148 billion lire, the drive to reduce costs saw the Matrix, a subsidiary of Seat Pagine Gialle (itself part of the Olivetti-Telecom group) adopt a job cutting scheme involving 114 of its 309 workers.

A voluntary redundancy package was offered to all those selected during individual talks held, ironically enough, in the company's Quake room. The reply of these young knowledge workers, however, was out-of-sync with their environment and the times: they joined a union a called a strike.

In a more post-industrial vein, they also came up with a name and a visual identity for their struggle: Tute Arancioni (Orange Overalls). The orange duplicating Virgilio's brand colour, with the overalls reflecting the uniform worn during the "old" economy. The continuity between "old" and "new" is further reinforced by the image found on their website's landing page: the "Fourth State" by Pellizza da Volpedo. Below which the following slogan: "Il bello di essere mandati a casa" (The beauty of being sent home), an ad-buster style play on Virgilio's tagline: "Il bello di Internet" (The beauty of the Internet).

The strike itself, held in front of the Matrix offices in Milan on January 24, was a success, with the Italian media providing extensive coverage to the event. According to the organizers, the turnout was close to complete, with 99 percent of the workforce present at the protest. Workers from other net companies, such as Lycos Italia, also turned up or issued messages of support.

For its part, Decoder, one of Italy's first cyber(punk)culture publications and early supporter of the strike, is running an online survey on what the Matrix staff should do, these are the current results:

1. Delegate to the unions 8%
2. Throw eggs at the chairman of Telecom 8%
3. Run off to the Maldives and forget the new economy 13%
4. Take over Virgilio 55%
5. Break everything 16%

Beyond the outcome of the Matrix struggle, other questions will seek an answer in times to come. Was this first Net-economy strike an historical anachronism, destined also to be the last, or does it mark a turning point, a new beginning, in industrial internet relations? Will it spread like a meme to other countries, or mutate into a different form of protest altogether? The streets will tell....