Does the ‘Infoproletariat’ Include Systems Analysts? Organising IT Workers in the Brazilian Banking Sector: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

As labour struggles around the impact of technology on working conditions heat up across various countries and sectors, myriad studies argue that the technologically based restructuring of workplaces has contributed to increasing precariousness in the new world of work. However, technology workers themselves have often been assessed as resistant to collective organising. This article explores the work experiences of IT workers in Brazil’s banking industry, many of whom are the most sought-after workers in the country — but who, from their own testimonies, confront a range of conditions that could form a basis for strong collective action. We analyse how technology work is organised within the largest private banks operating in the country and reflect on workers’ actual experiences, based on dozens of in-depth interviews, survey responses, and secondary literature. Our primary research objective is to better understand the scope of obstacles confronted by financial sector technology workers in Brazil, wherein may lie the potential for future collective action