Communications Workers Union (CWU)

General information

The Communication Workers' Union of South Africa is the most progressive, militant and growing union in the communication industry, with a growing 18,662 members spread across most of the communication industry of South Africa. CWU is a very young trade union that was formed only on the 13th to 16th of May 1996. Anyone who does not know the background to the formation of this union may be momentarily pardoned to think it lacks experience. The formation of CWU dates back to the early 1980's when the then Post Office Employees Association (PEASA), Post and Telecommunication Workers Association (POTWA) and South African Post Telecommunication Employees Association (SAPTEA) held merger meetings.

These meetings at times had to be held in places like Zambia, outside the borders of our country, where the giants of trade union movement in South Africa, the then South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), were present and shared with us their wealth of experience on trade unionism in South Africa and on trade union movements internationally.

The racist white staff associations that existed in the then Department of Post and Telecommunication (P&T) were invited to these meetings but refused to attend, probably blinded by the illusions of comfort that they found in their racist paradise. A paradise so eagerly aided and abetted by management that was equally steeped in racism and stood to benefit all the way from the disunity of workers.

The three streams, PEASA, POTWA and SAPTEA, flowed together on the historic 26th to 27th May 1996 to form the vibrant democratic CWU. At the time of the formation of this union our membership was derived mainly from workers of Telkom and Sapo. These two industries still contribute the majority of our members, but now our scope has increased dramatically to include workers from the industries that are mentioned below.