Workers in the dot.com world who feel they have nothing to lose but their stock options are rising up, according to union organisers in the field. But the surge of union activity has provoked an angry response from the employers.

This week sees the latest attempt to unionise one of the world's best-known dot.com companies, Amazon.com, and at another leading firm, Etown. Employers and industry workers are watching to see what happens in moves that could change the way the industry operates as the long honeymoon of the new commerce comes to an end.

"It is a new trend," said Barbara Judd of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, which is trying to unionise Amazon.com. "We're getting inquiries every day. There was this myth of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow so a lot of people are watching this to see what will happen."

WashTech was formed two years ago as part of the 750,000-strong Communications Workers of America. It says workers have complained about mandatory overtime and poor wages at Amazon, which employs 8,500 people worldwide, around 5,500 of them in the US, and has an annual turnover of $2bn (£1.25bn).

Ms Judd said that since the recruiting drive started there has been interest from workers in other dot.com companies.

"Belonging to a union has declined over the last few decades and a lot of people have not grown up in union households," she said. "But once people see how we can help they say 'this is what I want.' "

To have a union recognised, 30% of the workforce have to sign a petition to the national labour relations board so that a vote can take place; a union is recognised if 50% plus one of the workforce vote for it.

Erin Tyson-Poh of the Northern California Media Guild which has been recruiting dot.com workers in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, said: "People are joining unions for the exact same reasons they always have: for dignity, a voice in the workforce, job security."

Today there is a hearing on the guild's attempt to unionise Etown, the San Francisco-based dot.com. The company sacked a number of workers last month while the union was trying to recruit them. Ms Tyson-Poh said that interest in unions had increased greatly after the downturn in the dot.com economy this year and the loss of many jobs.

She said they had been approached both by people who had been in media unions before and by people who were new to the union movement. "We're seeing the younger workers, the group of people they said could never be organised," she said. "It's very encouraging."

The dot.com companies respond that there is no need for their employees to have unions.

Patty Smith of Amazon.com said the company's workforce was well treated. "We take great pride in having people who are passionate about delivering excellent service to the customer and are intelligent ...We pride ourselves on being progessive."

She said that the company operated an "open door" policy and four times a year had an "all hands" meetings when any grievances could be aired.

Amazon's internal website gives supervisors advice on how to spot union activity and on how to combat it.

The website suggests that "hushed conversations when you approach which have not occurred before" and "small group huddles breaking up in silence on the approach of the supervisor" are possible clues.

Steve Ramirez of Etown, which has 99 employees and was formed in 1995, said the company had devoted a lot of time and energy to ensuring that employees' complaints could be aired.

"We have open door access," said Mr Ramirez. He added that the firm's director of human resources acts as an ombudsperson in disputes.

"The genesis of this goes back to a couple of disgruntled former employees looking to incite current employees.

He added: "In my opinion, we work side by side and a more efficient process would be a one on one discussion. Introducing a third party contributes very little and could be more of a hindrance than a help."

Mr Ramirez said the recent decision to get rid of workers as the union started organising was a cost-cutting measure and coincidental.

Pat Dillon, a senior editor at Forbes ASAP magazine, which covers the dot.com industry, and a former dot.com worker himself, said the realisation that people were not going to get rich with their stock options had been a major factor in prompting interest in unions.

"It's a case of the chickens not coming home to roost," Mr Dillon said. "People were living in their own special bubbles and at the end of the 17-hour days, when the vision did not bear fruit, the natural evolutionary behaviour patterns took place."

He said that the new economy had taken advantage of a redefinition of the rules of work and what was happening now was inevitable.

"There is a sense of betrayal," he said.