Financial speculation, high technology and labor: The process of automation in Brazil's banking industry, 1964-1986

This study explores the impact of technical change and organizational rationalization in the banking industry in metropolitan Sao Paulo, a locus of intensive capital accumulation in Brazil during recent years. Between 1980 and 1986, the number of automated branches increased dramatically from none to more than twenty-three hundred. This massive influx of information technology affected not only absolute levels of employment but also the labor process and labor relations in the public and private sectors by changing skill, educational, and training requirements, modes of control, labor market position, the labor force participation of women, and extent of unionization. The study links the context of automation to the period of high financial speculation following the aftermath of the economic "miracle" when the state depended on domestic savings for deficit financing. I argue that the state's response to the deficit and inflation were critical in defining and limiting the scope of automation. Three conclusions are drawn. First, the impact of automation on the labor force was limited and its potential for labor savings and organization was not utilized. Second, the introduction of on-line data processing led to modest upgradings in skill requirements. However, labor conditions also declined, especially in the private sector, in part as a result of the economic crisis. Third, automation was far from an unitary phenomenon, and its impact was mediated by other factors such as ownership of capital (state, private), type of bank (merchant, retail) and organizational culture.