CULTURAL SECTOR WORKERS IN BULGARIA HOLD A PROTEST

Employees of museums, galleries, cultural centres and libraries in Bulgaria hold a day of discontent on 24th of November. The national protest was organized by two trade unions: Podkrepa and the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria.

The reasons were low salaries and the insufficient funding for safeguarding Bulgaria’s cultural heritage.

According to estimates of the unions, the 2016 draft state budget allocations to the sector were decreased by 15 to 20 million BGN.

Each trade union structure will choose the form of protest - symbolically, through posters, declarations or an hour of closed doors.

On 10th of December, the employees will support the protest of the National Library “St. St. Cyril and Methodius”. They express readiness to join a negotiation procedure and carry out effective strikes in January.

The protesting workers from museums and galleries insist on increasing the funds for safeguarding of movable and immovable cultural heritage in order to implement the reform in the museums sector and to start actual implementation of the envisaged priorities related to the cultural values set in the programme of the government.

They demand an increase in the funds for management of outdoor areas and buildings and increase in their salaries by minimum 50% in order to reach the size of the average wage in Bulgaria.