Worrying news out of Italy for us labor-geeks. Davide Barillari, a rep with IBM Italy, and one of the prime movers behind the international web-based linking and virtual world protests of the last year, is concerned his union may be trying to sideline his attempts to evangelise for the transition to a 2.0 organisation, by removing him from international responsibilities through a snap works council election.

He feels so strongly about this that he’s set up a blog (“WE trust in Davide“) and an online petition to give his side of the story. He thinks he’s probably been trying to move the union too far too fast – not to mention irking his employer – and this is the reaction to it.

This is always going to be a thorny one for unions. We have a responsibility to stay true to our democratic structures, which are what make us accountable and give us legitimacy to speak for all our members. Many unions will see they have an agreed way forward, and fairly enough view radical departures suggested by minority voices with extreme scepticism.

But if unions are going to make the most of the new ways of working that web 2.0 brings us, we also need to find a way to open up to the possibilities of direct involvment with a wider range of people (who may not be representative, but who have talents and ideas we shouldn’t ignore). The trick is doing this without compromising our accountability, and (surprise, surprise) I don’t have any real answers here yet.

Anyways, I know and like Davide enough to trust him myself, so am happy to sign his petition, and hope I get the chance to work with him and his ideas for some time to come.