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…Says he’s labour-friendly Pope after Pope John Paul 11”
By Bimbola Oyesola
The Director General of the premier Micheal Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), Ilorin, Issa Aremu has described the late Pope Francis who was buried on Saturday “as the most enthusiastic promoter of dignity of labour and decent work after the late John Paul 11”
In his tribute to the global outpouring of mourns, Aremu said Pope Francis was “not just the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, but second possibly only to the late Pope John Paul 11 who served as Pope from 1978 to 2005 in his audacious impactful advocacy for decent secured work as favoured by the International Labour Organization ( ILO).
He recalled with nostalgia that while alive Pope Francis had engaged with the premier United Nations agency: ILO, to promote decent mass job creation to combat global youth unemployment .
He said in 2021, in his speech celebrating the 109 years since the founding of the International Labour Organization, Pope Francis stressed the importance of legal standards towards employment growth, decent work and workers’ rights.
The MINILS DG, who was also former Vice President of 50 million strong IndustriAll Global Union and Vice President Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said the International labour movement would miss in the death of Pope Francis a papal voice for Labour’s rights.
He said the late Pope once said “At times like this when capital arrogantly reigns with its devastating legacy of jobless – growth and precarious jobs” in his defence of workers rights.
He added that only Pope John Paul had more quotable quotes in defence of dignity of work and labour market institutions in recent times.
