December began with fortnight protests of the Bulgarian Teachers Trade Union (a member of the largest trade union - the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria) against the education funds allocated in the 2006 government budget. As part of their strike demands teachers insist that some additional BGN 132.5 million be allocated for education.
The main strike demands were adopted on 11 November 2005, at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Bulgarian Teachers Trade Union (BTTU) held jointly with the National Strike Committee and the BTTU district co-ordinators. The most important of which are:
To fulfil the strike demands the Bulgarian 2006 government budget must foresee BGN 132.5 million for the education in addition to the allocated BGN 1,899.6 million, BTTU calculated. BGN 94 million of these shall be allocated for wages, according to the declaration of strike demands.
After a protest demonstration in front of the Ministry of Education building and the following meetings with the minister of education Daniel Valchev, the Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev and the President Georgi Parvanov (who at first clearly supported the teachers’ demands but did not commit in any way to assist them), on 30 November this year the management of the protesting trade union took part in an extraordinary session of the parliamentary budget commission together with some cabinet ministers - the minister of finance, the minister of labour and social policy and the minister of education. The two parties presented their plans as to the fulfilment of the demands, where the government proposals concerned teachers redundancies and small-size classes, increase of some taxes or cutting some budget funds of other sectors instead of internal restructuring of the education budget or reallocation of funds from the planned budget surplus. At the meeting the two parties could not bring their views closer and the Bulgarian Teachers Trade Union announced that they would continue their preparations for a nation-wide strike.
Meanwhile some 2,640 persons (based on BTTU as at 30 November 2005) of the protesting teachers throughout the country went on a hunger strike. The BTTU’s chairlady Mrs. Yanka Takeva and her colleagues from the trade union’s management are on a hunger strike for a 6th day now, monitored by doctors in case their health status worsens. The total number of teachers in Bulgaria is between 100,000 and 150,000 according to data published in the media, based on different sources.
The teachers’ union of the other representative trade union - the Confederation of Labour Podkrepa (CL Podkrepa) - joined their colleagues at first but later on stood aloof. The BTTU’s leader Mrs. Yanka Takeva and the vice-president of CL Podkrepa Mr. Dimitar Manolov even had a direct conflict during a TV broadcast on one of the national televisions. The support, which the public transport drivers in Sofia and Varna as well as other professional organisations proclaimed in the media, remained only a wish.
The striking teachers declare their readiness to start effective strike actions in the beginning of the second week of December, whereas the decision for that will be made on 5th December. The protesting teachers already made a step back agreeing to divide the demanded 15% increase of wages into two parts in 2006 and not to have it at once in the beginning of the year, according to the statement of the BTTU’s leader Yanka Takeva.
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