Worker-Owned Platforms and Other Experiences in Brazil

Platform cooperativism, data co-ops and worker-owned platforms are true experiments and laboratories. They can create alternative circuits of production and consumption. But they don’t have a ready-made formula.

Brazil has been one of the countries where platform cooperativism is most discussed. And it has been a place for the emergence of diverse practices and experiences. Since the delivery workers strike in 2020, there has been the emergence of many collective and cooperatives of riders. Not all are digital platforms. But they are alternatives to Big Tech and the dominant platformization of labor.

Discover some of these experiences – already in progress or still under construction – mainly in the delivery sector.

IN PROGRESS

Hire Who Struggles: virtual assistant created by the Homeless Workers Movement (MTST) to connect its activists to people who need the services of cleaners, musicians, masons, manicures, cooks, electricians, among others. This is one of the Homeless Workers Movement’s technology sector projects. They also offer technology courses from a left-wing perspective.

Señoritas Courier: collective of women and LGBTQIA+ delivery workers from São Paulo. They are committed to mobility and sustainable development. Señoritas have an automated order form. So, the client and the worker already know in advance the amount allocated to the worekrs delivery and to the collective.

TransEntrega: collective of trans delivery workers. Also committed to social and environmental responsibility, the collective was born from the Señoritas Courier. All delivery value goes to working people.

Pedal Express: one of the first delivery cooperatives in Brazil. Active since 2010, Porto Alegre’s experience is always in defense of bicycles and local initiatives.

Puma Delivery: another women delivery group, launched in 2020 in Porto Alegre.

Levô Courier: another delivery worker collective from Porto Alegre, with a strong presence of women. Sustainability is one of its core values.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

SafeDelivery: First initiative of SafeCoop, from Curitiba, which promises to build platform cooperatives. SafeDelivery will be a cooperative of delivery workers that will build its own platform, where the profit generated will be destined to the workers. The initiative has an open registration for riders.

Decent Work Platform: the initiative is being developed in the city of Salvador by researchers from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). This will be a platform for plumbers and locksmiths. Details about the experience will be provided shortly.

Anti-Fascist Couriers São Paulo: the collective is in a training course to better understand its demands for building a cooperative platform for delivery and struggle.

Na Pista: startup that was born from a PhD research on working conditions for platform delivery workers, by Igor Dalla Vecchia, at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). The goal is to create digital solutions, such as data to protect workers and that connect with urban planning and academic research.

ContratArte: digital platform project to connect artists and their audiences in Rio Grande do Sul, with the aim of creating alternative work for artists in the region. Initiative by researchers at the Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS).

Want to know more about platform cooperativism and worker-owned platforms in Brazil?

On June 29, DigiLabour Research Lab will launch the Platform Cooperativism Observatory in Brazil, funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.

The launch event will be 6PM Brasilia Time. Please join us!

And follow on Instagram! Soon we will announce the website.