Konstantin Trenchev, founder of Bulgaria’s first independent trade union, dies

Dr Konstantin Trenchev, founder and honorary president of the Confederation of Labour Podkrepa, has died following a brief illness. The funeral service will be held on 9 November at 12 noon at the Cathedral of St Nedelya in Sofia. A doctor by profession, a public figure and dissident by conviction, and a leader by vocation, Dr Trenchev was the man who founded Bulgaria’s first independent trade union, Podkrepa, on 8 February 1989. At a time when freedom of association was impossible and the protection of human and labour rights was subordinated to state authority, he chose the most difficult…