Unions are threatening to “kidnap the state if it does not align itself with their interests,” with labor organizations being manipulated by “immoral leaders who have managed to entrench themselves,” the Mexican Catholic Church said.

“Now, they threaten to kidnap the state if it does not align itself with their interests, which, in fact, are not the same as those of their members and will help national development even less,” the Archdiocese of Mexico City’s weekly Desde la Fe newspaper said in its editorial.

“They are seen as political forces that sell themselves to the top bidder, and they have been hijacked by immoral leaders who have managed to entrench themselves and create power structures that go against the nature of unions,” the editorial said.

The Mexican Catholic Church has now weighed in on the controversial labor reforms held up in Congress by the parties opposed to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

The parties want to guarantee democracy and transparency in the unions.