STORY: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva launches his final reelection campaign on Sunday (August 16) from a storied stadium where he stood on a table to address some 60,000 striking metalworkers in 1979 without a sound system.

The homecoming in the "May 1" stadium in Sao Bernardo do Campo, a once-thriving factory city on Sao Paulo's industrial outskirts, is a tribute to the labor movement that eventually propelled Lula from factory worker to Brazil's first working-class president.

Nearly five decades later, however, Lula is grappling with how to rally a new generation of digital app-based gig workers with little connection to the unions and factory floors that once formed the backbone of his Workers Party (PT).

"There has been a substantial change in the world of work," Lula said after his government suffered losses in major city elections in 2024. "We need to adapt our message to the world of work that is not limited to formal, registered employment."

Ahead of October's vote, the PT is trying to do that by backing a shorter work week and proposing new protections for app-based workers, including regulations covering pay, working conditions, social security benefits and platform algorithms.

Resistance from companies has mostly sunk efforts so far, and millions of mostly young, male app workers seem skeptical of government intervention — a constituency Lula's main right-wing rival, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, stands ready to court.

At the heart of Lula's dilemma is a surge in jobs outside Brazil's system of formal employment, which provides workers with a raft of labor rights and social-security benefits.

The share of workers who held formal jobs fell to 38.2% in December from 46.7% at the end of 2010, even as unemployment ended 2025 at a record-low 5.1%.

Darlan Almeida, 27, had a formal job but now makes more delivering for apps on his motorcycle in Sao Bernardo do Campo, where his Lula-supporting father worked in a factory. Almeida, however, identifies as apolitical and says the government's efforts misunderstand what workers like him need.

"They don't know what we need or how we work. They should spend a day with us on the streets," Almeida said.

Almeida is one of the 2.1 million Brazilians working through digital platforms, a workforce that grew 170% between 2015 and 2025, according to a central bank estimate using survey data from Brazil's statistics agency.

Opportunities on digital platforms and fears of government meddling have pushed workers to right-wing politicians who favor lighter regulation, said Oswaldo Amaral, a public opinion researcher at the University of Campinas.

A 2023 survey paid for by Uber and Brazilian partner iFood found that 40% of platform workers lean right. Another 40% of workers said they were centrist, while just 20% identified with the left.

Lula sought to regulate app-based work in 2024, but the efforts faltered as major tech companies pushed back and worker distrust mounted. His government is trying again this year, but a new bill has stalled in Congress.

The challenges reflect a party rooted in labor organizing struggling to keep pace with workers increasingly detached from unions and traditional employment structures.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

SHOWS: SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO, SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (ARCHIVE - MAY 1978) (ORIGINALLY IN 4:3) (REUTERS - Access all)

1. THEN UNION LEADER LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA SPEAKING AT A METALWORKERS STRIKE, SAYING (Portuguese):

"If anything has to change in this country, it will change starting with the ABC metalworkers"

2. METALWORKERS APPLAUDING

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (ARCHIVE - OCTOBER 6, 2002) (ORIGINALLY IN 4:3) (REUTERS - Access all)

3. THEN BRAZILIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA KISSING THE BRAZILIAN FLAG AFTER VOTING

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (ARCHIVE - OCTOBER 27, 2002) (ORIGINALLY IN 4:3) (REUTERS - Access all) (NIGHT SHOTS)

4. PEOPLE ON PAULISTA AVENUE CELEBRATING LULA'S ELECTION VICTORY

5. THEN BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT ELECT LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA WAVING

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (AUGUST 15, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

6. FOOD DELIVERY APP WORKER LEAVING ON BICYCLE

7. FOOD DELIVERY APP WORKER WAITING TO RECEIVE AN ORDER

SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO, SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (AUGUST 14, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

8. FOOD DELIVERY APP WORKER ACCEPTING AN ORDER FOR DELIVERY

9. (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) DARLAN ALMEIDA, 27, FOOD DELIVERY APP WORKER, SAYING:

"So, for northeasterners, my mother is from the northeast, for them the struggle was... Lula represented the northeast a lot, here they say ah! Lula didn't do anything in Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo is the big capital, it doesn't need anything. The northeast needed it."

10. DARLAN ALMEIDA PUTTING ON HIS HELMET

11. (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) DARLAN ALMEIDA, 27, FOOD DELIVERY APP WORKER, SAYING:

"We found the platforms and the platforms found us, we should sit down and have a good conversation to see what's going to be done, improvements for us, more support points, more materials so we can work."

12. DARLAN ALMEIDA CLOSING HIS HELMET VISOR

13. (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) DARLAN ALMEIDA, 27, FOOD DELIVERY APP WORKER, SAYING:

"My vote, all blank, all null, it's always been like that because let's say, when election time comes everyone talks about how they're going to make improvements, that they're going to do this and that and then they disappear."

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (AUGUST 15, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

14. FOOD DELIVERY APP WORKER WAITING TO RECEIVE AN ORDER

15. FOOD DELIVERY APP WORKERS WORKING ON THEIR MOTORCYCLES

16. STREET VENDOR SITTING

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (AUGUST 8, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

17. BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA AT AN EVENT CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF THE LANDLESS WORKERS MOVEMENT (MST)

18. AUDIENCE MAKING THE "L" FOR LULA WITH THEIR HANDS

19. LULA WITH A KID MAKING THE "L"

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (ARCHIVE - JULY 1, 2020) (REUTERS - Access all)

20. VARIOUS OF FOOD DELIVERY APP WORKERS HOLDING A PROTEST FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN THEIR WORKING CONDITIONS

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (AUGUST 15, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

21. FOOD DELIVERY APP WORKER ON PAULISTA AVENUE

SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO, SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (AUGUST 14, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

22. MOTORCYCLE MIRROR REFLECTING FOOD DELIVERY APP WORKER, ROGERIO DO NASCIMENTO GOMES DA SILVA SPEAKING

23. (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) FOOD DELIVERY APP WORKER, ROGERIO DO NASCIMENTO GOMES DA SILVA, SAYING:

"I'm here and I can earn an amount that many times with a formal job I wouldn't be able to make, but it's relative, there are days I can make more and there are days I make less."

24. DO NASCIMENTO WITH HIS HELMET

25. (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) FOOD DELIVERY APP WORKER, ROGERIO DO NASCIMENTO GOMES DA SILVA, SAYING:

"There's also the question of discrimination, because whether you like it or not in our country they discriminate a lot against our profession, some consider it their profession, others don't, but also not everyone wants to spend their whole life on top of a motorcycle."

26. DO NASCIMENTO GETTING ON HIS MOTORCYCLE

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (AUGUST 15, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

27. STREET IN SAO PAULO

28. VARIOUS OF APP DRIVER IN HIS CAR

29. VARIOUS OF STREET VENDORS WORKING

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (AUGUST 8, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

30. LULA WITH HIS GOVERNMENT MEMBERS RAISING THEIR HANDS AT AN EVENT CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF THE LANDLESS WORKERS MOVEMENT (MST)