{"id":110219,"date":"2018-03-28T09:07:44","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T08:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/?p=110219"},"modified":"2020-05-21T12:14:39","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T11:14:39","slug":"numsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/numsa\/","title":{"rendered":"Here are Things You Probably Didn’t Know About NUMSA"},"content":{"rendered":"
With more than three hundred and thirty thousand (330,000) members, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) is outrightly the biggest single trade union in the country of South Africa.<\/p>\n
The Union is officially affiliated with the World Federation of Trade Unions \u2013 WFTU with Andrew Chirwa currently serving as the president of NUMSA while the current general secretary is Irvin Jim. NUMSA, which is headquartered in Johannesburg, was previously the biggest affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) before its expulsion.<\/p>\n
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa was founded in 1987 following the merger of four different unions; Metal and Allied Workers Union (MAWU), Motor Industry Combined Workers Union (MICWU), National Automobile and Allied Workers Union (NAAWU), and United Metal, and the Mining and Allied Workers of South Africa (UMMAWOSA). Two other unions under the umbrella of COSATU – General and Allied Workers Union (GAWU) and Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), further gave their metal members to the union.<\/p>\n
The union largely considers itself to be Marxist-Leninist, a political philosophy that was built on the ideas of Leninism and Marxism which seeks to create and develop socialist states.<\/p>\n
NUMSA has recorded a few achievements over the years since its inception. Some of them include:<\/p>\n
1. Closing the wage gap between highly paid and low paid workers.<\/p>\n
2. Uniting metalworkers across race, ethnic, and gender lines. Women have further been able to secure their jobs after maternity leave.<\/p>\n
3. The wages and benefits of the workers have been improved. The union has won pension or provident funds for almost all members.<\/p>\n
4. Successfully influenced the government to adopt worker-friendly laws as well as to implement pro-poor policies and increase the level of services.<\/p>\n
5. Embarked on campaigns that assisted sister unions on the continent and around the globe to grow and fight the misery of exploitation and dehumanization.<\/p>\n