Transport and General Workers Union (T & GWU) Collection
Item set
- Title
- Transport and General Workers Union (T & GWU) Collection
- Alternative Title
- T & GWU Collection
- Description
- This item set comprises archival materials documenting the activities of the Transport and General Workers Union (T & GWU). The collection includes meeting minutes, reports, correspondence, and strategy documents relating to collective bargaining, sectoral organisation, and union campaigns, particularly during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The records reflect the union’s engagement with centralised bargaining initiatives and its collaboration with other labour organisations within the broader South African trade union movement.
- Date Issued
- 1980s–1990s
- Language
- English
- Subject
- Transport workers—Labor unions—South Africa
- Service industry workers—Labor unions—South Africa
- Labour unions--South Africa
- Collective bargaining—South Africa
- Industrial relations--South Africa
- Trade unions — South Africa
- Temporal Coverage
- Late 1980s–early 1990s
- Spatial Coverage
- South Africa
- Access Rights
- Access provided for research and educational purposes. Copyright held by the Transport and General Workers Union unless otherwise noted.
- Source
- Originally sourced from the Transport and General Workers Union and affiliated partners, by the Labour Research Service (LRS)
Items
-
Minutes of a centralised bargaining meeting held at the SACCAWU Head Office on 14 September 1992. The document records reports from COSATU-affiliated unions on engagements with employers, disputes, and strategies relating to centralised bargaining across multiple sectors, including transport, chemicals, printing, contract cleaning, security, and higher education. It outlines union demands, challenges in sectoral and industry-level bargaining, proposed industrial councils, and strategic actions leading up to subsequent meetings. -
A detailed financial assessment was presented to the T&GWU Congress. The report notes a significant stabilisation of union finances, primarily due to the 1988 Congress decision to increase membership subscriptions from R3 to R4. Despite improved internal income, the report issues a "note of caution" regarding rising expenditure and a continued "heavy reliance" on overseas funders for legal fees and education programs. It warns that without disciplined spending, the union faces a return to a "constant threat of bank overdraft" and remains far from achieving total self-sufficiency. -
A strategic progress report presented at the T&GWU Bi-annual Congress in Johannesburg, May 1991. The document situates the union within the "period of the 90s," characterised by the challenge of transferring power to the people. It defines T&GWU as a key component of the liberation forces and the National Democratic Revolution (NDR). The report emphasises the necessity for the working class to shape the political content of the transition by advancing a specific class perspective through struggle. It calls for an honest organisational self-assessment of the sixteen months following the unbanning of political organisations.