site.btaTrade Union President: Tearing Social Fabric Does Not Spell Anything Good

Tearing society’s social fabric does not spell anything good and disrupts the functioning of democracy, said Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) leader Plamen Dimitrov on Tuesday. He was speaking at a conference on labour, living standards and social stratification. Dimitrov said that politicians are avoiding this issue.

This is the first annual research conference of the Institute for Social and Trade Union Research with CITUB in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Dimitrov highlighted that the demographic catastrophe and the heavy inequalities are not addressed and that they are deepening.

Lyuboslav Kostov, head of the Institute for Social and Trade Union Research and CITUB chief economist, said that the social partners should be on the same page in terms of social issues, inequalities, labour market dynamics and digitalization. He expressed hope that conferences such as this will take the debate to an expert level.

Behind the numbers about inequality are people who cannot heat their homes while others can afford to spend the winter in exotic resorts, said Kalina Drenska of the Bulgarian office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Lyuben Tomev, who headed the Institute between 1999 and 2021, said that in addition to increasing GDP it is equally important what the goals of the economy and society are about how the GDP is redistributed. He called for complex policies for overcoming inequalities.