Confederación del Trabajo Podkrepa

Podkrepa fue fundada en 1989 como un movimiento obrero antisistema por un grupo de disidentes, liderados por Konstantin Trenchev . Inicialmente, el sindicato adoptó una postura de derecha y anticomunista , alineándose con otros sindicatos anticomunistas como Solidaridad de Polonia y la AFL-CIO estadounidense . ^{[ 1 ] [ 2 ]} De esta manera, se acercó a los movimientos opositores SDS y DPS y, finalmente, se convirtió en miembro de pleno derecho del SDS, de derecha, una vez que se constituyó como organización legalmente registrada. ^{[ 2 ]}

Casi al mismo tiempo, se formó un sindicato rival, la Confederación de Sindicatos Independientes de Bulgaria (CITUB), mediante una reorganización de los centros sindicales progubernamentales de la era socialista, y se afilió al Partido Socialista Búlgaro , heredero político del Partido Comunista del país y principal rival del SDS. ^{[ 2 ]}

Posteriormente, Podkrepa organizó huelgas (a las que luego se unió CITUB por razones distintas) y contribuyó a la presión que finalmente provocó la dimisión de Andrey Lukanov . ^{[ 2 ]}

Sin embargo, rápidamente se forjó una rivalidad entre los dos sindicatos, en la que Podkrepa salió perdiendo, con una membresía superada en gran medida por la CITUB en una proporción de casi 10:1. ^{[ 2 ]}

Por sus posturas y acciones, Podkrepa fue criticada por su posición de derecha y su pertenencia al SDS, lo que llevó a Trenchev a desvincular en cierta medida a Podkrepa de la derecha del país y a rebajar su estatus dentro del SDS de miembro de pleno derecho a observador. ^{[ 2 ]}

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^[2] 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 "scum".^[3]

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.^[4]

With Podkrepa having moved away from its rightist roots, it reconciled with CITUB and came to openly cooperate with the Socialist-led government elected in 2005, which it continued to support through to 2009.^[4] By this point, Podkrepa had cut all ties to the SDS and refused to endorse its candidate for the 2006 Bulgarian presidential election.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.^[4] 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 of the Burgas water company, with members questioning whether he would support labour or business interests.^[7]

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 in Hungary.^[8]

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.^[9][10] A senior member of the union, alongside Grigorova, also became one of the lead organizers of the 2020–2021 Bulgarian protests against the right-wing GERB-United Patriots-SDS government, despite the fact that the union's head still did not support the protest movement.^[11]