The offensive against the health plan, repeatedly presented by Caixa in negotiations and which our own union tried to push down our throats, would deepen inequality between pre- and post-2018 colleagues, active and retired colleagues, and, above all, would entail salary losses for those with their family on the plan, affecting mainly women. In light of this, when they threatened our right to health and that of our families, we drew a red line with our strength.

And with this, bankers became an active part of building the strike, just as the newly arrived young IT professionals did, who, together with the rest of the category, realized that by not logging in, those who make the profit and guarantee service to the population, those who ensure the functioning of "automatic" systems, etc., are affected.

Every improvement we achieved regarding the first proposal is due solely and exclusively to our struggle. We advanced and defeated more than once the fatalism of the "trumpets of the apocalypse" propagated by the union leadership. And we managed to hold the strike even when that leadership actively collaborated with the dismantling operation perpetrated by the company and later by the TST injunction. Now that same leadership still tries to take the laurels, but they will not be able to erase the fact that bankers embraced this strike as their own, and not of the union.

Banking work is undergoing transformation, and the strike, in the hands of workers, too

Before the national banking 24-hour strike on August 20, it was common currency to think that a banking strike might no longer be possible. The banks, and even the union leadership, tried to make us believe there would no longer be room for our collective strength to express itself amidst remote work and the advancement of digitization.

This strike showed, however, that workers can appropriate this "hybrid" character, unifying what new forms of banking work try to divide, achieving a strong combination between networks, workplaces, and even the streets. WhatsApp groups, which in running the bank are instruments of control over our time, during the strike became permanent meetings of employees. Digital voting, by making the vote secret, allowed even managerial sectors to express their consciousness.

On the other hand, work teams that did not meet or even know each other managed to come together around common interests. The strike was a moment of overcoming the atomization imposed by digitized work and home office. This kind of "democracy" experienced through these digital tools allowed the banking category, at a time of need, to see itself as part of the same collective will and, at the same time, to unmask in real time the lies of the company and the union. But we also encountered the limits of digital tools, because we returned to seeing the importance of coming together in our workplaces, recognizing among ourselves the dimension of our dissatisfaction, and thus the need to fight for assemblies and more face-to-face initiatives, blocked by the union.

By showing our strength in the streets, we sought unity with other categories, such as Correios, we sought to dialogue with the population through, for example, the initiative of distributing a letter to the population drafted by colleagues who built during the strike a base committee of São Joaquim. With this, the support we found in workplaces, on the streets, from outsourced workers to commerce, showed that our struggle speaks to the great demands of the working class, such as ending the 6x1 shift. A series of experiences that, if they had found some echo in the leaderships of the main unions in the country themselves, could have been a factor to mobilize our class as a whole.

The new always comes: strengthening base democracy and self-organization

What was not new in this strike is that to face the bank's leadership we had to also face the union leadership and Contraf/CUT, which wanted at all costs to bury our strike, sowing confusion and terrorism, omitting information from assemblies, blocking the development of struggle and unity with other categories, not to mention the refusal to organize in daily life the strength of our strike in a representative strike command.

But if we managed to defeat the union leadership once and again in the main bases throughout the country, what was missing for us to effectively take the strike into our own hands?
Voting and participating heavily in assemblies, attending rallies, organizing groups on networks of each agency and sector, are fundamental initiatives, but for bankers and banks to determine the course of their own struggle and demand a seat at negotiations, there was a lack of organization of a democratic strike command, with representatives from the base of various units.

The grassroots democracy experiences of this strike, such as the formation of the São Joaquim Base Committee and even the voting for a representatives' commission at an event on Av. Paulista, point to potentials, and also limits.

The São Joaquim committee emerged from a demand to organize a WhatsApp group so we wouldn't lose contact during the strike and could schedule in-person meetings in front of our workplace. The active participation of colleagues from various units of the building was fertile ground for diverse ideas to energize and strengthen the strike, such as events to demand that the union put its structure at the service of the base's proposals. Similarly, along with the SP banking opposition, we also voted for a Representatives Commission to demand participation in negotiations.

And here, we engage in a debate with sectors of the banking opposition in SP who ended up limiting this role, because the Commission was originally voted on with the objective of monitoring negotiations. This vote was an enormous point of support for an alternative voice from the base to rise and assume the role of transforming the huge dissatisfaction of the strike into effective mobilization force. Developing grassroots organizations and self-organization is something we must value maximally if we want all the potential of workers to develop. This Representatives Commission could have served as an example to be followed nationally and strengthened the coordination of the entire category.

What was organized around the formation and action of the São Joaquim Base Committee is a small example of how the Representatives Committee could have effectively functioned, organizing meetings and gatherings in each building and city regions, coordinating the daily life of the strike, and demanding and pressuring the union to respect the will of the base. In addition,

Refounding the banking opposition in São Paulo in the struggle for the return of the union to the hands of bank workers

We wrote this text right after the result of the 1st round of elections, and given the profound transformations underway, the only certainty we can have is that the country's political future will be turbulent, and just like in our strike, we can only count on our strength and our organization.

The 2026 banking strike placed in a glaring manner the contradiction of having a union that plays on the side of the class enemy, breaking the unity of our category right at the beginning of the campaign, where our colleagues from BB and private banks could not be in the strike with us to fight for more than the meager "increase" proposed by Fenaban, or even the health plan which for BB colleagues is also a ticking time bomb.

As opposition, we want a union where the base can express itself, with spaces for discussion, committees in each building and region, and no longer closed votes where only options allowed by the union enter. In addition, that initiatives of category organization can occur daily, and not only during salary campaign periods or elections, although we defend that it is key to organize a strong opposition slate for the next union elections. A series of reflections that are part of ensuring that the union is on the side of bank workers and not strengthening the Republic of bankers, which the Master case helped to expose.

The experience of this strike shows the potential of building from each workplace, starting from the will of the base and connecting with important demands of our class and the population. And we believe that this is how the opposition that we need must be built, in combat against corporatism, in defense of the unity of the entire category, and with each sector of the working class in the struggle against misogyny, machismo, racism, supporting us in the strategic position of our category to raise the flags of all poor and working people. We call every bank worker who agrees with us to organize together the struggle for democracy and the return of our union.