Struggles of Delivery Workers in Brazil: Working Conditions and Collective Organization during the Pandemic

Abstract

This article aims to analyze food delivery workers’ working conditions and ongoing collective organization during the pandemic in Brazil. The discussion involves historical analysis, based on empirical research carried out with delivery couriers over the past eight years in Brazil and on analysis of the delivery workers’ strikes in July of 2020. Our view is that their work is subsumed to a new type of work organization, management and control, defined here as uberization. Recent investigation shows that their working conditions are worsening during the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of reduced working hour value alongside unchangingly long workdays. These conditions have been met by platform workers’ collective organizations demanding better working conditions. Our findings indicate an ongoing political struggle involving different institutions, and the central role of communication between workers through digital platforms as the first form of organization. From the class composition framework, we understand that there is a germ for political composition involving Brazilian riders, in line with the circulation of workers’ struggles around the world, especially in Latin America.

Collective regulation and the future of work in the digital economy: Insights from comparative employment relations

“…Platform workers in countries with weaker independent collective bargaining institutions have more often taken the form of direct worker-organized protests and mobilizations, often coordinated by NGOs or grassroots labour organizations. Research in India (Shalini et al 2021), Brazil (Abilio et al, 2021) and China (Lei 2021; Liu and Friedman, 2021) has shown the central role of both solidarity among the workforce and with the public to these organizing efforts.…”

As Estratégias de Comunicação das Plataformas de Trabalho: Circulação de Sentidos nas Mídias Sociais das Empresas no Brasil

“…The main demands were increased pay, an end to unfair blockages and the scoring system, as well as adequate provision of personal protective equipment without workers having to pay for it. Riders also appealed to the solidarity of consumers, asking them not to order anything from the platforms in the days of strikes (Abílio et al, 2021). This is the background for the analysis we conducted on media strategies of four ride-hailing and delivery platforms in Brazil.…”

“…The context of a pandemic and workers' strike has placed platforms under public scrutiny when they felt compelled to intensify their media strategies, as a symbolic dimension of class struggles. According to Abílio et al (2021), there was a change in news coverage between the first and the second strike of delivery workers. Legacy media started to use data and views of the platforms to the detriment of the workers' perspective.…”

The emergence of algorithmic solidarity: unveiling mutual aid practices and resistance among Chinese delivery workers

“…Literature on digital labor and food delivery was scarce until a few years ago and has boomed only recently (e.g. Abilio et al, 2021; Anwar and Graham, 2020, 2021; Barratt et al, 2020; Ferrari and Graham, 2021; Gregory, 2020; Moore and Woodcock, 2021; Tassinari and Maccarrone, 2020; Veen et al, 2020); however, in the context of China, there are still few studies (e.g, Lei, 2021; Liu and Friedman, 2021; Sun, 2019) focusing on how workers adapt to this work context and how they negotiate and react to the algorithmic power of food delivery companies.…”