Crossed ways: unionism and app workers

• Grant number: 22/01368-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: June 01, 2023
• End date: October 03, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science
• Principal Investigator: Andréia Galvão
• Grantee: Eduardo José Rezende Pereira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Work subordinated to digital platforms deepens the precariousness of work, leading many researchers to analyze not only its characteristics and possibilities of regulation, but also the forms of resistance encountered by these workers. This project seeks to understand the collective organization of workers through digital platforms, focusing on the relationship between unionism and drivers through apps and unionism. Through the field study, semi-structured interviews and documental survey, the research will be carried out on four levels: (I) from two organizations that claim to be app drivers unions, in São Paulo and the Federal District, to investigate their characteristics and particularities of action, as well as the political relationship with the workers' base; (II) the relationship of these organizations with the union centrals to which they are affiliated, allowing analysis and comparison of the discourse and political practice that are adopted by the union leadership in terms of encouraging the formation of workers' unions through applications; (III) map and analyze the characteristics of the process of creating new unions, federation or confederation of the category; and (IV) understand what the demands and forms of identification between the base of workers and the organizations that seek to represent them locally are.