ABSTRACT
In an era of digital capitalism, the growth of markets and companies’ flexibility enabled the weakening of trade union strength and the loss of labour rights, with the transfer of risks, costs, and insecurity from society to workers. However, in the 21st century, a new class power is being rebuilt in the service sector, especially amongst those who work with digital platforms. In 2011, several anti-austerity and new digitally enabled movements arose on an international scale, creating a massive impact on the Portuguese society amongst trade unions and workers’ organizations. It brought new strategies and tactics of organization and resistance, creating a greater degree of awareness by social struggle, liberating individuals to shape a new autonomy and reclaim power. In a digital economy, call centre workers—the cyberproletariat—represent the new proletariat of modern times, subjected to intense, unstable, and flexible forms of work absent of autonomy and creativity, which result in physical, mental, and spiritual vulnerability. Between 2008 and 2016, fifty semi-structured interviews were conducted with former and present workers, trade union delegates, and activists from workers’ mobilizations in order to provide an analysis of the wider scenario of trade unionism and virtual collective action in Portuguese call centres.
