Workplace deaths are a defeat for society - pope

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 19 - Pope Francis praised the role trade unions play in society and lamented the scourge of workplace deaths during an audience with Italian union CGIL on Monday.
    "There are still too many deaths, mutilations, and injuries in the workplace," the pope said.
    "Every death at work is a defeat for society as a whole.
    "Instead of counting them at the end of each year, we should remember their names, because they are people, not numbers".
    The head of the Catholic Church said that "there are no free workers without a union" and said unions are called on to be "a voice for the voiceless.
    "You have to make noise to give a voice to those who have no voice," he said.
    He thanked unions for looking out for young people "who are often forced into precarious, inadequate, and enslaving contracts".
    CGIL Secretary General Maurizio Landini highlighted the problem of in-work poverty in his address during the audience.
    "Work, understood as the fulfilment and dignity of a person, has been devalued by the current economic and social model to the degree that you can be poor even if you are working," he said.
    "There is still too much job insecurity, gangmastering, off-the-books work, exploitation and growing unemployment for young people and women, especially in southern Italy.
    "It is necessary to make labour central again in order to build a new social and economic model". (ANSA).