Pope Francis has declared private property a “secondary right” and criticized trade unionists who become “pseudo-bosses”.

the Pope Francis criticized this Thursday the corruption that turns unions into “pseudo-bosses” Yes it keeps them away from the city in a video message in Spanish to the participants of the 109 International Labor Conference, which takes place in virtual format due to the pandemic. The pontiff added that private property is “a secondary right” which depends on a primary right, which is “The universal destination of goods.”

“When a union is corrupt, it can no longer do it, and it becomes a pseudo-boss status, so remote from the people”, denounced the Pope.

For this reason, he insisted that the job of these organizations is “to undress the powerful who trample on the rights of the most vulnerable workers”, although he urged them to do not let yourself be locked in a “straitjacket” and concentrate on specific situations “.

In his first message to the Director-General of the International Labor Organization (ILO), Guy ryder, the Pope also insisted that private property is “a secondary right” which depends on this primary right, which is “the universal destination of goods”.

The Pontiff thus returned to the idea he had already expressed last December when he inaugurated the virtual international conference of the Pan-American and Pan-African Committees of Judges for Social Rights and Franciscan Doctrine, when affirmed that the right of property is “a natural right” but “secondary” derived from the right which each one possesses, “born from the universal destiny of the goods created”.

Social protection for undeclared work

On another side, Francisco called for “social protection” to reach those who work in black. An exclusion that he framed in the “philosophy of elimination” which also complicates “early detection” and “seeking medical care for COVID-19”, increasing the risk of epidemics occurring among these populations.

“Such epidemics may go unchecked or even actively hidden, posing an additional threat to public health.”, He said.

Pope warned of the risk that “the rush to return to greater economic activity” after the pandemic could lead to “past fixations on profit, isolationism and nationalism, blind consumerism and the denial of clear evidence indicating discrimination against our ‘throwaway’ siblings in society ”.

To avoid this, a “A new future of work based on decent and dignified working conditions, which comes from collective bargaining and which promotes the common good ”.

Francisco demanded attention, above all, “Towards workers on the margins of work” and “They perform what is often called the work of three dimensions: dangerous, dirty and degrading”, such as “day laborers, those in the informal sector, migrant workers and refugees”.

He denounced that these workers, as well as their families, “They are normally excluded from access to national programs for health promotion, disease prevention, treatment and care”, while demanding that their essential rights, including the right to organize, be respected.

“The COVID crisis has already affected the most vulnerable and they should not suffer from measures to accelerate a recovery that focuses only on economic markers”, therefore “an in-depth reform of the economy is necessary”, he said. -he assures.

It is absolutely necessary to ensure that social assistance reaches the informal economy and gives special attention to the special needs of women and girls.

Francisco also pointed out that the pandemic has hit hard “women in the informal economy, including street vendors and domestic workers ”, whose children“ are exposed to a greater health risk ”, since, without“ accessible crèches ”, they have to accompany them to their workplaces or stay at home without protection.

“There is a great need to ensure that social assistance reaches the informal economy and pays special attention to the special needs of women and girls”, He said.

The pandemic revealed “that many women around the world continue to cry out for freedom, justice and equality “ and that, although there have been “notable improvements in the recognition of women’s rights and in their participation in public space, there is still a long way to go in some countries”.

Likewise, the pontiff He reminded entrepreneurs that “their true vocation” is “to produce wealth for the benefit of all. He thus denounced an “elitist dynamic, of constitution of new elites at the cost of the elimination of many people and many peoples”. For him, warned of the real danger of “forgetting those who have been left behind”. “They run the risk of being attacked by an even worse virus of COVID-19: that of selfish indifference,” he said. For François, “A society cannot progress by getting rid of itself, it cannot progress.”

“This virus is spread thinking that life is better if it’s better for me, and that everything will be fine if it’s good for me, and so it starts and ends by selecting one person over another. , reject the poor, sacrifice the left behind on the so-called “altar of progress” “Francisco said.

(With information from Europa Press and EFE)

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