This week Union Island closed down. If you’re wondering what Union Island was, it existed in the online virtual world called Second Life. Despite the mainstream media preoccupation with virtual weddings and real life divorces, Second Life is big business. Its economy grew by 65% in 2009, to a total of $567 million. Second Life first came to prominence in the Union world in 2007, when Italian IBM workers held a ‘virtual strike’ over a pay dispute, which contributed to an improved agreement. Union Island soon followed, involving the TUC, Union Network International and the New Unionism Network