South Africa's New Super-Union

92,000 South African workers have united within a union spanning a wide range of major industries.

CEPPWAWU (Chemical, Pulp and Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers' Union) was created at the end of last week by the merger of the chemical and allied workers' CWIU and the paper and allied workers' PPAPWU. As well as the sectors listed in its name, the new union covers glass, rubber, plastics and pharmaceuticals.

Elected as CEPPWAWU's General Secretary was Muzi Buthelezi, with Bengeza Mthombeni as Deputy General Secretary and Pasco Dyani as President.

"Our membership will benefit from this merger through better service, improved finances and human resources, and more bargaining power," Buthelezi told ICEM UPDATE.

The new union will be harmonising its collective bargaining this month and expects to have its local and regional structures in place by May.

It urged its members to contribute today's (3 March) wages to the Job Creation Fund set up by South Africa's national labour confederations to tackle the unemployment crisis.

At the global level, CEPPWAWU will be affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). The new union has taken a resolutely internationalist stance from the start, and specifically notes that "unions internationally from the chemical and paper industries have aligned themselves to form single organisations."

"This strong new union will be a further boost for the ICEM's important organising drive in Africa," commented ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe. "South Africa is crucial to out efforts to unite the world's workers - a fact that we will recognise when the ICEM holds its World Congress in Durban this November."