World Movement of Christian Workers

INFOR June 2021: "Telework and Digital Work"

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Do telework and digital work contribute really to a greater working freedom?

Not if the labour legislation remains being what it is, if trade unions are still at company doors, if workers are still persecuted by thinking differently, if the normal working day is not reduced, etc. In this context, teleworking from home can only mean more exploitation and greater subjugation of worker –and his family– to work.

In many places, due to the need to confine our professional activity in our living space, teleworking has been seen as a panacea for many evils, among them the difficulty of reconciling working and professional life.

New forces are transforming in the working world. COVID-19 pandemic has social and political consequences: a «virtualisation of human life» and a social control” has been established. The world as we knew was stopped at the beginning of 2020 and the governments, supporting by science, had to implement measures to save lives.

It is true that life goes on, but undoubtedly we have adopted the most unusual way of working of this generation. The challenge for policy makers is how to remain protecting people’s life and health without, at the same time, causing any irreversible damage to the economy.

MIGRANTS’ DAY MESSAGE – 18th DECEMBER: "LET’S BUILD BRIDGES, NOT WALLS!

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Nowadays, according UN data, there have not been so many people in the world who are displacing and living outside their place of origin. In 2019, there were 272 million of migrants all over the world, 51 million more than in 2010, Is this a problem? No, quite the opposite!

Migration is a historic opportunity to meetings, cultural enrichment, and exchange of skills among peoples and citizens of the world to progress together and to face the great challenges of humanity. The pandemic we are experiencing shows that migrants often bring their skills to face it, in particular by working in health services, transport, catering and many personal services. We cannot forget that migrants are, above all, workers. They are our brothers and sisters.

Many economists agree that migration is often an opportunity for the economy of the host country.

And, however, recent news reports us terrifying pictures. The Mediterranean Sea has become a cemetery for people who flee from poverty and wars. All over the world, migrants are singled out, arrested, persecuted, and harassed. We have still on mind the images of the police tearing the tarpaulins of migrants’ tents in several French towns, as Calais, but also in Paris! We are horrified to see women, men and children sleeping outdoors on Polish and Belorussian frontier. Europe has the duty of hospitality. But, today, migrants are used as scapegoats. This is useful to hide to those who are really responsible of social and environmental crises, those who run a system in which the financial gain predominates over the human beings.

Instead of welcoming and knowing people, walls are being built in many places. Today, there are more than 1000 km of walls in Europe and the world has never seen so many built. As if many countries were trying to entrench themselves against the poorest.

We are movements of workers. We are well aware that precariousness in which the migrant populations are, force them to work in indecent labour conditions. This situation also serves to question the social benefits of workers in the host country and to divide the workers among them. Acting for and above all with the migrants also means to act for all the workers’ rights. This was reminded in France by the undocumented workers who dared to go on strike in November 2021, with their trade union to demand the regularization of their situation.

We also think of all the activists of WMCW movements who work with migrants. In this way, ACO activists in Bordeaux, France, explain why they are involved: “This lack of humanity strikes us deeply, because the dignity of these people has been violated. Our commitments of fraternity, of support with the associations are reinforced before the violence with the human beings are treated”. The activists are taking measures in other cities of France, as Calais, in the region of Paris, in the south of France, etc.

MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON THE OCCASION OF THE FOURTH WORLD MEETING OF POPULAR MOVEMENTS

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Brothers, sisters, dear social poets,

1. Dear social poets

This is what I like to call you: social poets. You are social poets, because you have the ability and the courage to create hope where there appears to be only waste and exclusion. Poetry means creativity, and you create hope. With your hands you know how to shape the dignity of each person, of families and of society as a whole, with land, housing, work, care, and community. Thank you, because your dedication speaks with an authority that can refute the silent and often polite denials to which you have been subjected, or to which so many of our brothers and sisters are subjected. But, thinking of you, I am convinced that your dedication is above all a proclamation of hope. Seeing you reminds me that we are not condemned to repeat or to build a future based on exclusion and inequality, rejection or indifference; where the culture of privilege is an invisible and insurmountable power; and where being exploited and abused are common methods of survival. No! You know how to proclaim this very well. Thank you.

Thank you for the video we have just seen. I have read the reflections from the meeting, the testimonies of those who lived in these times of tribulation and anguish, the summary of their desires and their proposals. Thank you. Thank you for including me in the historical process that you are going through, and thank you for sharing with me this fraternal dialogue that seeks to see the great in the small and the small in the great, a dialogue that is born in the peripheries, a dialogue that reaches Rome and wherein we may all feel invited and engaged. “If we want to encounter and help one another, we have to dialogue”, [1] and how much!

You felt that the current situation merited a new meeting. I felt the same. Although we have never lost contact, it is already five years, I think, since the general meeting, isn’t it? A lot has happened in that time; a lot has changed. These changes mark points of no return, turning points, crossroads at which humanity must make choices. And new moments of encounter, discernment and joint action are needed. Every person, every organisation, every country, and the whole world, needs to look for moments to reflect, discern and choose, because returning to the previous mindsets would be truly suicidal and, if I may press the point a little, ecocidal and genocidal.

7th October, 2021: World Day for Decent Work Message

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Unfortunately, the current work goes back even more with the denial of labour rights, the deterioration of democracy, the violation of human rights, the denial of social justice, the rejection of pluralism, the eliminaion of secularism, the promotion of political hatred and the maintance of fundamentalism.

International Labour Organization (ILO) has taken on recently to improve the coverage and the effectiveness of “social protection for everyone” as strategic objective, focussing on income security with the target on the poor. This requires to identify profitable and equitable means by which the social protection can be spread to all groups. And it is necessary to focus on providing social protection to the informal sector. The prospect of “decent work” sums up the aspirations of people on their working life. It implies opportunities of productive job by providing a fair income. It requires security in workplace and social protection for families, through better prospects of personal development and social integration. It requires freedom so that people express their concerns, organise themselves and participate on decisions that affect their lives and the equality of opportunities and treatment for all women and men. In November 2018, ILO said that 31% of Indian workers worked in unhealthy conditions, while aroung 41% are poorly paid, placing India 19th out of 22nd countries of Asian region.