Organizing the digital working-class in Portugal during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Abstract Since the Covid-19 pandemic that digital and platform workers have been facing labour deregulation, extenuating working hours, erosion of labour and social rights, as well as a major loss of referential regarding unions. In a scenario of uberization of work, this article seeks to analyze how the class-that-lives-from-work has been claiming its true power, adopting strategies and tactics of organization and resistance through cyberactivism. Between 2020 and 2022, semi-structured interviews, netnography and non-participant observation in social media were conducted in Portugal. The key findings reveal that the working-class is in a process of reorganization through digital platforms, social media and apps, used not only to regulate and control the pace of work but to claim for labour and human rights as a labour campaigning tool.

Keywords

• Digital platform work
• Cyberactivism
• Organizing
• Unionism
• Covid-19