The Confederation of Labour Podkrepa is a
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
centre in
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
. It was founded February 8, 1989 and has a membership of approximately 150,000 individuals.
It is affiliated with the
International Trade Union Confederation
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC); german: Internationaler Gewerkschaftsbund (IGB), link=no; es, Confederación Sindical Internacional (CSI), link=no. is the world's largest trade union federation.
History
The federation w ...
and the
European Trade Union Confederation
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is the major trade union organisation representing workers at the European level. In its role as a European social partner, the ETUC works both in a consulting role with the European Commission and n ...
. in Bulgarian, its full name is , which is commonly shortened to ( ).
History
Foundation and Union rivalry
Podkrepa was founded in 1989 as an anti-establishment labour movement by a group of dissidents, led by
Konstantin Trenchev
Konstantin Trenchev ( bg, Константин Тренчев) (born 8 February 1955) is a Bulgarian medic and syndicalist who is the president of the Confederation of Labour Podkrepa.
Trenchev has received his education in the field of medicine. ...
. Initially the labour union took a
right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
,
anti-communist
Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...
stance, aligning itself with other anti-communist labour unions such as the Polish
Solidarity
''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...
and American
AFL-CIO.
As such, it became close to the opposition
SDS and
DPS
DPS may refer to:
Schools United States
* Dalton Public Schools, the public school district in Dalton, Georgia
* Dearborn Public Schools, the public school district in Dearborn, Michigan
* Decatur Public Schools District 61, the public school sys ...
movements and eventually became a full member of the rightist SDS, once it became a legally registered organization.
Around the same time, a competing trade union, the
Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria
The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria (KNSB/CITUB) is a trade union confederation in Bulgaria. The CITUB is Bulgaria's largest, most influential and well-established trade union, having several times more members than its large ...
(CITUB), was formed by a reorganization of the pro-government socialist-era union centres and became affiliated with the
Bulgarian Socialist Party
The Bulgarian Socialist Party ( bg, Българска социалистическа партия, translit=Balgarska sotsialisticheska partiya, BSP), also known as The Centenarian ( bg, Столетницата, links=no, translit=Stoletnitsat ...
, the political heir to the country's Communist Party and primary rival of the SDS.
Podkrepa subsequently organized strikes (which were later joined in by CITUB for separate reasons) and contributed to the pressure that eventually caused
Andrey Lukanov
Andrey Karlov Lukanov ( ) (26 September 1938 – 2 October 1996) was a Bulgarian politician. Between February and November 1990, was the final Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Bulgaria.
Biography Early life
Lukanov was born in Moscow, ...
to resign.
A rivalry between the two unions was nevertheless quickly forged, in which Podkrepa would emerge the loser, its membership dwarfed by the CITUB at a ratio of nearly 10:1.
Ideological pivot
For its stances and actions, Podkrepa was criticised for its right-wing stance and its membership in the SDS, which led Trenchev to somewhat dissasociate Podkrepa from the country's right-wing and downgrade its status within the SDS from a full member to that of an observer.
The union faced somewhat of an identity crisis in the 1990s, both as the transition from socialism to Western-style free market capitalism had degraded certain workers' rights and social benefits
that Podkrepa had claimed to champion, and as Trenchev found himself at odds with SDS leadership, going as far as to dub SDS leader
Ivan Kostov
Ivan Yordanov Kostov ( bg, Иван Йорданов Костов ) (born 23 December 1949, in Sofia) was the 47th Prime Minister of Bulgaria in office from May 1997 to July 2001 and leader of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) between Dec ...
"scum".
Some of the more hard-line members left and formed different trade unions, such as "Promyana", a movement which sought to take the socialists down from power. However, these splinter movements proved unpopular and ineffective, fading into irrelevance relatively quickly. In the subsequent development of the trade union system in the country, CITUB solidified its role as Bulgaria's leading syndicate, consistently beating out Podkrepa in membership numbers through the years. With the remaining movements side-lined, CITUB and Podkrepa were earmarked as the only two nationally representative unions by the Bulgarian government.
Reconciliation
With Podkrepa having moved away from its rightist roots, it reconciled with CITUB and came to openly cooperate with the
Socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
-led government elected
in 2005, which it continued to support through to 2009.
By this point, Podkrepa had cut all ties to the SDS and refused to endorse its candidate for the
2006 Bulgarian presidential election
Presidential elections were held in Bulgaria on 22 October 2006, as decided on 27 July 2006 by the Bulgarian Parliament. The runoff took place on 29 October 2006, while the electoral campaign spanned 19 September – 20 October. At the election, ...
.
In 2011, Trenchev was pressured by the union's members to resign, but Podkrepa did not accept candidacies for his replacement and as such he remained at the head of the organization. He resigned, citing union members' demands, four years later in 2015, subsequently leaving Podkrepa entirely. This happened amidst a growing stagnation and decline in the labour union movement in general, with membership in labour unions declining from the nearly 100% of workers during the socialist era down to 15.4% in 2016.
He was replaced by Dimitar Manolov, who won the leadership election with 476 from a total of 733 votes. However, he also came under criticism for being a member of the
board of directors
A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
of the
Burgas
Burgas ( bg, Бургас, ), sometimes transliterated as ''Bourgas'', is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the fourth-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, with a popu ...
water company, with members questioning whether he would support labour or business interests.
Other members of the original anti-communist era also left the union, attempting to form other small unions, such as the "Defense Syndicate". The unions subsequently criticised each other, with a senior Podkrepa figure stating that they were "people that never moved their ass to go to a protest" and compared a proposed increase in overtime in Bulgaria to measures to policies taken by
Viktor Orbán
Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian politician who has served as prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has presided over Fidesz since 1993, with a brief break between 20 ...
in Hungary.
By this point the union had changed so much since its foundation, that a new generation of leading figures such as Podkrepa's Economics Expert and
MEP candidate Vanya Grigorova defined herself as leftist and viewed the government as rightist. A senior member of the union, alongside Grigorova, also became one of the lead organizers of the
2020–2021 Bulgarian protests
The 2020–2021 Bulgarian protests were a series of demonstrations that were being held in Bulgaria, mainly in the capital Sofia, as well as cities with a large Bulgarian diaspora, such as Brussels, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin and London. The ...
against the right-wing
GERB
GERB ( bg, ГЕРБ, translation=coat of arms, acronym for Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) is a conservative, populist political party which was the ruling party of Bulgaria between 2009 and 2021.
History
GERB is headed by for ...
-
United Patriots
The United Patriots (OP; bg, Обединени Патриоти; ОП, translit=Obedineni Patrioti; OP) was a nationalist electoral alliance in Bulgaria formed by three political parties: IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement (IMRO), Attack (unt ...
-SDS government, despite the fact that the union's head still did not support the protest movement.
References
*
External links
Official website of Podkrepa CLSyndicate EducationNational Federation Technical Industry, Science, InformaticsSyndical Regional Union – VarnaSyndical Regional Union – Veliko TarnovoSyndical Regional Union – Pleven
{{Portal, Organized labour
Trade unions in Bulgaria
International Trade Union Confederation
European Trade Union Confederation
Trade unions established in 1989