The General Workers' Union (GWU) was a

general union A general union is a trade union (called ''labor union'' in American English) which represents workers from all industries and companies, rather than just one organisation or a particular sector, as in a craft union or industrial union. A gen ...

representing workers in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The union was founded in 1977, on the initiative of the Western Province Workers' Advice Bureau. It was initially named the Western Province General Workers' Union, but expanded across the country in 1980, becoming the "General Workers' Union". By that point, it had 13,300 members. Unlike the majority of South African trade unions, it represented all workers, regardless of ethnicity, although the large majority were black. The union focused on co-ordinating independent committees of workers, and was strongly opposed to registration with the

Government of South Africa The Government of South Africa, or South African Government, is the national government of the Republic of South Africa, a parliamentary republic with a three-tier system of government and an independent judiciary, operating in a parliamentary ...

.{{cite book , last1=Miller , first1=Shirley , title=Trade Unions in South Africa 1970-1980: a directory and statistics , date=1982 , publisher=Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit , location=Cape Town , isbn=0799204692 While remaining open to all workers, the union decided to strengthen its position by recruiting in specific industries. It gained recognition among dock workers in

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

, becoming the first of the group of unions founded in the 1970s to sign a recognition agreement. It did not affiliate to the Federation of South African Trade Unions, generally being considered to be more political and slightly more left-wing than its members. Despite its political activism, it refused to affiliate with any specific party or movement. In 1985, the union became a founding affiliate of the

Congress of South African Trade Unions The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU or Cosatu) is a trade union federation in South Africa. It was founded in 1985 and is the largest of the country's three main trade union federations, with 21 affiliated trade unions.One Union ...

. The following year, it merged into the

Transport and General Workers' Union The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general union, general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland—where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU)—with 900 ...

References

General unions Trade unions established in 1977 Trade unions disestablished in 1986 Trade unions in South Africa