Influencer advocating for reducing working hours among the most voted in Rio: ‘Unions are relevant, but they need to adapt’

Brasil de Fato

Influencer and founder of the Life Beyond Work (VAT, in Portuguese) movement, Rick Azevedo, 30, was an electoral phenomenon in the city of Rio de Janeiro. He was the Socialism and Freedom Party city councilor with the lowest financial investment and the most votes. The leftist party itself – popularly known in Brazil as Psol – was surprised. 

For Rick, the 29,300 votes he received come from VAT’s strength, which defends the end of the six-day on followed by one day off (known in Brazil as “6×1”), “giving voice to workers who often don’t see themselves represented by traditional structures.”

“The trade union movement has enormous historical relevance and is responsible for many of the achievements we have today,” says Azevedo. “However, I believe it needs to be updated to adapt to workers’ current reality, especially those facing precarious conditions or in informal sectors,” he says.

Since leaving Taipas, in the Brazilian state of Tocantins at the age of 17, passing through Palmas (Tocantins’ capital) and finally arriving in Rio de Janeiro, Rick has led a life common to many young Black men who seek better living conditions in Brazil’s southeastern metropolises, alternating between odd jobs and precarious work in the service sector.  

In the last year, life has stopped following the most predictable script. Azevedo’s meteoric rise on social media and now in party politics began with a TikTok video in which he vented his frustration and called for action: “We are being slaved without doing anything.”

“I wonder when we, the working class, are going to make a revolution in this country to end 6×1,” he said, after receiving a call from his boss during his day off asking him to come in early the next day. The video went viral. Rick went from being a pharmacy clerk to a public figure advocating the end of 6×1 and an influencer with more than 200,000 followers on Instagram.  

Far from being a bet by Psol, Rick Azevedo received BRL 60,000 (around US$ 10,500) from the party’s state directory to use in his campaign. That’s a much smaller sum, for example, than the other three elected members of the party received: Mônica Benício, William Siri and Thais Ferreira each received BRL 300,000 (around US$ 52,900).

“I believe I got so many votes because my trajectory speaks directly to those who are struggling, to those who face the difficulties of everyday life,” says the VAT leader, whose family initially disapproved his political intentions to get a seat on Rio’s City Council. “They knew that politics is complicated and that I could get frustrated or expose myself to attacks,” he explains.

Asked if Brazilian party politics is moving towards a scenario with an increasing number of influencers, Rick considers that “they have an important role in politics, particularly regarding their ability to reach many people”, but that “the future of politics will be built by those who manage to unite reach and consistency in the causes they defend.”

Petition with 1.3 million signatures and Proposed Constitutional Amendment

As soon as the video went viral in September 2023, Rick created a WhatsApp group with supporters to decide what to do about the issue. With a limit of 2,000 people, the community filled up in less than a week. That’s when the name VAT was created.  

They created an online petition entitled “For a Brazil that goes beyond work: VAT and Ricardo Azevedo at the forefront of change,” asking the National Congress to amend the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT, in Portuguese) to reduce working hours. The document has already reached 1.3 million signatures.

The issue gained the support of Congresswoman Erika Hilton (Psol), who presented a Proposed Constitutional Amendment (PEC, in Portuguese) on May 1st to reduce working hours. The proposal needs the support of 171 parliamentarians to go through. From this relationship with Hilton, dubbed VAT’s “godmother”, came the approach to Psol and the idea of running for office.

How VAT is organized

Currently, the movement is organized through WhatsApp and Telegram groups divided by state, with their respective coordinators. VAT’s actions are primarily leafleting and publicizing the public petition. 

Centered around Rick Azevedo, VAT’s national coordinator, the movement has thousands of participants. In the groups, donations are collected for printing materials and, eventually, for Rick’s trips to represent the movement.  

“The leadership serves to coordinate and ensure that the movement remains true to its essence, without losing focus on exploited and precarious workers. At VAT, we don’t accept disrespect towards coordination, because it is fundamental to keeping the movement organized and purposeful,” says Rick. 

“And, above all, we don’t allow the movement to become something purely partisan, because it was created by and for workers, with a commitment to maintaining this genuine and collective struggle,” says the influencer.

João Ciocca is one of the participants in the VAT São Paulo Telegram group. He joined as soon as it was created in September 2023. “Among other things, what drew me to the group was realizing that the last great labor conquest in Brazilian history occurred with bank workers in the 1980s, which established 6 working hours per day and 5 working days per week. However, it didn’t go beyond that category,” he says.

“It was also because of my studies that I expanded my perception beyond my bubble, learning that the reality of the majority of workers falls into this 6×1 dynamic, often with bosses who don’t even respect the law,” says João. He recalls that at the market near his home, employees are paid extra to go to work on their day off. “Talking to a worker there, she told me she hadn’t seen her family for three months,” he says.

For João, VAT is “a possible nursery for new leaders” and “one of the most important movements today in the struggle for labor rights, which seems to have been abandoned for the last 40 years”.

“There have been improvements, especially in the presidential governments of the Workers’ Party, and that’s undeniable. However, none of them have significantly changed the structure. On the contrary, we had the legalization of 6×1 in the meantime. Then came the labor reform under Temer’s coup government, which further attacked labor rights and should have been completely repealed on the first day of Lula’s third term,” says Ciocca.

In his opinion, “Rick managed to pull so many people into VAT” because he acted differently from the unions, “which have not been able to demonstrate to their grassroots that they really represent what they want.”

“The union needs to adapt to the changes of the last 20 years in the use of the internet, social media platforms and message apps to know how to talk to and also listen to workers,” says João.

Rick Azevedo believes that VAT is now “expanding” and it needs to stay focused on the fight to end 6×1. “That’s our battle.” 

“Our commitment is to make this fight grow, but without letting VAT become something bureaucratic or distant from its roots,” says Rick. “VAT’s essence is the daily struggle of workers – and this genuine connection will not be lost.”