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ABOUT SACTWU

Keeping jobs in fashion

  • Has 112 000 members on stop order, making it the dominant union in the fashion manufacturing industry, locally, and the biggest in our industry globally.
  • Organises workers in the clothing, textile, leather, footwear, distribution and allied industries.
  • Is the 6th largest affiliate of COSATU.
  • Is the largest trade union in Cape Town, Atlantis, Dimbaza, Botshabelo, Mogwase, Qwa Qwa, Ladysmith, Isithebe and many other towns.
  • Has its origins in the organisation of Afrikaner woman in Joburg (1920’s), African textile workers in the Eastern Cape (1940’s), Indian workers in Durban (1940’s), the strikers in 1973 Durban strikes and the unionisation of workers in Cape Town in the 1980’s.
  • Organises 1235 workplaces or companies in the sector.
  • Has 20 offices across the country in Salt River, Atlantis, Paarl, Oudtshoorn, Port Elizabeth, East London, King Williams Town, Durban, Tongaat, Pietermaritzburg, Ladysmith, Newcastle, Pinetown, Isisthebe, Port Shepstone, Joburg, Pretoria, Kimberley, Botshabelo, Puthaditjhaba

SACTWU PRODUCTS AND PLACES
SACTWU members make:

  • Jackets, pants, dresses, suits, children’s wear, cotton fabric, jerseys, knitted fabric, shoes, underpants, raincoats, school uniforms.
  • Tanned leather for car seats yarn, chemically-based fibres, geo-textiles, beekeeper suits, bikinis, clothing labels, shirts, jeans, foam, handbags, cooler-bags.
  • Non-woven fabrics, polymer chips, feather products, lanyards, ties, hats, caps, panties, t-shirts, worsted textiles, table cloths, blankets. Curtains, toilet-seat covers, carpets, ropes, police uniforms, overall socks, vests, seat covers, sachets, briefcases, leather diary covers, sandals.
  • Cotton-wool, medical textiles, rugby jerseys, bed sheets, electric blankets, cricket gear, wallets, mattress covers, belts, cushions, cotton thread, corporate gear, banners, swimming pool covers.

SACTWU members can be found in:

  • Spinning mills, woolwasheries, factory shops, clothing factories, CMT operators, small business hives, footwear factories, cotton gins, laundries, tanneries, weaving sheds, finishing operations, dye-houses, retail outlets, warehouses, home operations.
  • Products made by SACTWU members can be found in:
  • Cars, hotels, shops, factories, gold mines, boutiques, shopping malls, bedrooms, hospitals, dining rooms, offices, schools, army barracks, sportsfields, beaches, farms, aeroplanes, trains.

SACTWU members work in:

  • Salt River, Woodstock, Cape Town, Epping, Maitland, Diep River, Wynberg, Observatory, Bellville, Parow, Elsies River, Brackenfell, Atlantis, Darling, Mamre, Paarl, Worcester, George, Oudtshoorn. Port Elizabeth, East London, Dimbaza, King Williams Town.
  • Durban, Phoenix, Mobeni, Pinetown, Tongaat, Mooi River, Estcourt, Ladysmith, Newcastle, Port Shepstone, Isithebe, Pietermaritzburg.
  • Joburg Central, Jeppe, Doornfontein, Pretoria, Mogwase, Bronkhorstspruit, Babelegi, Botshabelo, Kimberley, Kroonstad, Phuthaditjhaba.

SACTWU linked departments and programmes

  • National Secretariat Unit
  • Organising and Bargaining Unit
  • Education Department
  • Media Department
  • Finance Department
  • HIV/AIDS Project
  • Welfare Programme
  • SA Labour Research Institute
  • Edupeg Programme
  • Winter School
  • Computer School
  • Bursary Department

Key Services of SACTWU

  • Collective Bargaining – providing wage coverage for 200 00 workers, or one million South African family members, through 6 central negotiations and 118 plant level agreements.
  • Job security – negotiating alternatives to closures, retrenchments and liquidations, and lobbying for jobs with government.
  • Member benefits – providing R4,4 million in funeral benefits to members and dependents, in 4800 payouts a year.
  • Promoting higher education – sponsoring 1600 students at universities, institutes of technology and colleges, and contributing R4,5 million in bursaries every year.
  • Member complaints – assisting 117 000 members through a network of 2 000 workplace shop stewards at 1306 organised workplaces.
  • Health education – running a unique HIV/AIDS industry service reaching 40 000 workers annually with a focussed awareness message,trained 3600 shop stewards in the last three years and a free voluntary counselling and testing programme for members that have seen more than 3000 workers counselled and tested since December 2002.
  • Health services – co-managing 6 clinics in the Cape in residential and industrial areas, covering 100 000 members and dependents, plus a clinic in Johannesburg and Durban each.
  • Building basic education – providing literacy and numeracy programmes at 200 primary schools nation-wide through the Edupeg programme, reaching 1 659 474 (in total since Edupeg was started by SACTWU) learners, and 249 538 in 2003.
  • Developing shop floor leadership – training more than 200 shop stewards annually in labour law, representation skills and problem solving.
  • Job advocacy – through initiating the Proudly South Africa campaign during the 1998 Job Summit negotiation, and launching the Cape Town Fashion Festival.
  • Promoting member communication – through regular production of a newspaper, SACTWU News.
  • Promoting vocational and workplace training – through co-managing the CTFL and W&R Sector Education and Training Authorities.
  • Disseminating information and communication technology skills – through partnerships with institutes of technology that have seen worker leaders graduate in our Computer School.
  • Helping high school students – through a unique Matric Winter School programme that has assisted 2200 students to date. (From 2000 onwards).
  • Creating employment – through ownership of two factories in the industry that employs a total of 300 workers, through investments in companies that employs in excess of 20 000 workers inside and outside the industry, through contributing to the labour Job Creation Trust, as well as through Policy measures that protect tens of thousands of jobs of the union’s membership.

During the past 36 months, SACTWU has:

  • Managed a budget of R120million;
  • Taken up 1109 cases at the CCMA or Bargaining Council;
  • Recruited 48 500 new members;
  • Paid out R16.7 million in bursaries to 6 613 recipients
  • Held more than 1529 meetings at either branch, regional or national level;
  • Educated 5760 shop stewards, in 201 union education courses
  • Spent R1.8 million to build unionism in Africa

SACTWU Representatives

SACTWU delegates serve on a number of key decision-making bodies. These include:

International – the governing body of the ILO, executive of the International TextileGarment and Leather Workers Federation, Centre for Working Capital, Common Wealth TUC.

SETA’s – the Clothing, Textile Leather and Footwear and the Wholesale and Retail trade SETA,s.

Industry policy and advocacy bodies – Cotton Board, Proudly South African board, Western Cape Investment Council, ITAC, Textile Industry Development Council and Workers World Media Productions.

Social dialogue institutions – NEDLAC, the governing body of the CCMA, the Presidential Working Group, Millennium Labour Council.

Bargaining Councils – Clothing, Textiles and Leather Councils, as well as Medical Benefit Committees, Provident Fund Committees and Labour Affairs Committees.

Labour Policy Structures – COSATU Executive, COSATU National Office Bearers Committee, National Labour Secretariat, Job Creation Trust and the Chris Hani Institute.

General- UCT, Worker Rights Consortium, Centre for Working Capital, Council for Higher Education.

SACTWU LEADERS:

  • Ebrahim Patel - General Secretary
  • Themba Khumalo - President
  • André Kriel - Deputy General Secretary
  • Violet Sebone - 1st Vice President
  • Beauty Zibula - 2nd Vice President
  • Wayne Van Der Rheede - National Organising Secretary
  • Chris Gina - National Organising Secretary
  • Freda Oosthuysen - National Treasurer

SACTWU Contacts

Head Office

Cape Town: Industria House, 350 Victoria Road, Salt River, 7925
Tel: (021) 447 4570 Fax: (021) 447 4593

Regional Offices

Eastern Cape Region: 15 Green Street, Port Elizabeth, 6056
Tel: (041) 487 2832 Fax: (041) 487 2835

Gauteng Region: Garment Centre, 75 End Street, Johannesburg, 2001
Tel: (011) 4022 745/6 Fax: (011) 4028 212

Central Region: Qwa Qwa, Room 133, Phuthaditjhaba, 9866
Tel: (058) 713 4935 Fax: (058) 713 6134

Western Cape region: Industria House, 350 Victoria Road, Salt River, 7925
Tel: (021) 447 4570 Fax: (021) 447 8515

Kwazulu Natal Region: James Bolton Hall, 3rd Floor, 127 Gale Street, Durban, 4001
Tel: (031) 3011 351 Fax: (031) 305 1039