Landini to Pope Francis: “Today we are poor even when we work, we need to change our model”

VATICAN CITY. «Work, understood as fulfillment and dignity of the person, has been devalued by the current economic and social model to such an extent that one is poor even when working. There is still too much precarious work, illegal hiring, undeclared work, exploitation and unemployment that is growing for young people and women, particularly in the South». This was stated by the general secretary of the Italian General Conference of Labor (CGIL), Maurizio Landini, in his speech to the Pope, also emphasizing that «people continue to die at work. More than a thousand people have died this year.” Therefore, it is necessary “to put work back at the center to build a new social and economic model”. Francis confirms that “There are still too many dead – I see them in the newspapers: there are some every day -, too many mutilated and injured in the workplace!”; he denounces «precariousness» and «exploitation»; and exhorts the union: “Make noise to give a voice to those who have no voice”.

A street union
Thus Landini explained that “we want to be a street union to affirm the rights of the person in the workplace and in the territory”. About 5,000 delegates and CGIL executives were received by the Pope in Sala Nervi. “I greet you from the CGIL, a secular, programmatic, democratic, multi-ethnic trade union organization of women and men, born at the end of the 19th century and which today has 5 million members”, Landini began, thanking Jorge Mario “from the bottom of my heart”. Bergoglio “of having agreed to meet us”.