Lula of Brazil intends to win back workers to his Workers Party by launching a reelection campaign

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva began his final campaign for reelection on Sunday, from a historic stadium where, in 1979, he addressed over 60,000 striking metalworkers while standing on a table without a sound system.

“I thank the working men and women of this country who, at one point, believed that someone like them could do more for them than someone different from them,” Lula said to a crowd of about 20,000 supporters on Sunday, many of whom were wearing the red associated with his Workers Party (PT). The homecoming is held in the “May 1” stadium in Sao Bernardo do Campo, a once-thriving factory city on Sao Paulo’s industrial outskirts.

“There has been a substantial change in the world of work,” Lula stated after his government lost significant city elections in 2024. However, fifty years later, Lula is struggling to mobilize a new generation of gig workers based on digital apps who have little connection to the unions and factory floors that once formed the backbone of PT. We need to adapt our message to a world of work that goes beyond formal, registered employment.

The PT is attempting to achieve this ahead of the October ballot by supporting a reduced workweek and putting out new safeguards for app-based workers, like as rules pertaining to compensation, working conditions, social security benefits, and platform algorithms.

Millions of predominantly young, male app workers appear dubious of government interference; this group is a demographic that Lula’s primary right-wing competitor, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, is prepared to court. Companies’ resistance has mostly undermined attempts thus far.

The gig economy

The rise in jobs outside of Brazil’s conventional employment system, which offers workers a variety of labor rights and social security benefits, is at the core of Lula’s predicament.

Even though unemployment ended in 2025 at a record-low of 5.1%, the percentage of people with formal occupations decreased to 38.2% in December from 46.7% at the end of 2010.

“What kind of future do you ​want if you do not invest in jobs?” On Sunday, Lula questioned his followers. Over the past three and a half years, we have created 10.1 million official jobs. That’s what it means to consider the future.

In Sao Bernardo do Campo, Darlan Almeida, 27, used to have a formal job but now delivers software using his motorcycle, following in the footsteps of his father, who supports Lula and worked in a factory. But according to Almeida, who defines it as apolitical, the government’s initiatives don’t grasp what people like him require. “They don’t know what we need or how we work.” Almeida suggested that they join us on the streets for a day.

According to a central bank estimate based on survey data from Brazil’s statistics office, Almeida is among the 2.1 million Brazilians employed thru digital platforms, a workforce that increased by 170% between 2015 and 2025.

Eduardo Marini, a 51-year-old Uber driver, bemoans his working circumstances but claims that the flexibility of the job exceeds the advantages of conventional employment and that he worries that government regulation may restrict his freedom.

According to Oswaldo Amaral, a public opinion researcher at the University of Campinas, workers have turned to right-wing politicians who support less regulation due to opportunities on digital platforms and concerns about government interference.

“The prevailing perception is that the state only gets in the way and collects taxes,” Amaral stated.

According to a 2023 survey funded by Uber and its Brazilian partner iFood, Marini and 40% of platform workers are on the right. Just 20% of employees identified as left-leaning, while another 40% claimed to be centrist.

Identity Crisis

In 2024, Lula attempted to regulate app-based jobs, but as worker mistrust increased and big tech corporations resisted, the initiatives failed. This year, his government is making another attempt, but a new bill has stuck in Congress.

The difficulties show that a labor-organizing party is finding it difficult to keep up with workers who are becoming more disengaged from traditional employment institutions and unions.

According to the most recent official data, Brazil’s unionization rate has almost halved over the last ten years, going from 15.7% in 2014 to 8.9% in 2024.

According to Marco Teixeira, a political science professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, the Workers Party’s message for app-based workers without a clear supervisor is unclear.

Edinho Silva, the head of the party, has welcomed some introspection. “They aren’t talking to them, they aren’t organizing them, and they aren’t present in their daily lives,” Silva stated, adding that unions and left-wing organizations need to learn more about informal laborers and their working conditions.

ASSISTANCE REQUIRED

Rogerio do Santo, 43, is looking for formal employment once more after working as an Uber driver for seven years. “We don’t have anyone from our sector to represent us and seek improvements or benefits on our behalf,” he said, adding that low fares have reduced revenues and that drivers have no power to demand better terms due to a lack of organized representation.

His grievances allude to the PT’s return to employees such as himself. Despite rejecting the designations of employee or union member, many informal workers nevertheless desire more safeguards.

According to a 2025 PT-commissioned survey, only 27.5% of informal workers seek formal employment, while 65% of them hope to become entrepreneurs. However, 56% of respondents stated that safeguards like a minimum wage, sick pay, and injury compensation are still “critical.”

Regarding collective organization, respondents’ opinions were divided: about 40% stated it would be advantageous to form their union, but the same percentage indicated they would not join one.

In front of a crowd dressed mostly in Brazil’s national colors of yellow and green, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro launched his presidential campaign on Sunday at Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro. He stated that, if elected, he would develop a program named “My First Company,” but he did not elaborate.

To advance technology and innovation, he continued, he would encourage collaborations between academic institutions and the business community so that “young people will not only have a diploma hanging on the wall, but also a job.”