Bulgaria - Priests found a trade union December 13, 2010

Bulgarian orthodox priests have founded a trade union unit as part of the Podkrepa CL confederation. The news has been confirmed by the leadership of Podkrepa. The organization unites priests, sextons, administrative servants of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and candle manufacturers. The unrest among church servants started in the town of Vratsa, where priests in complained they did not receive their salaries on time and lacked health and retirement insurance. “Priests to have a trade union? This is absurd!”, Vratsa metropolitan Kipriyan reacted, arguing “The canons forbid it.”

English: http://paper.standartnews.com/en/article.php?d=2010-12-14&article=34959

via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Bulgaria

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.