South African Transport and Allied Workers Union

The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) is a trade union in South Africa. It was founded in May, 2000 and has a membership of 200,000. It's predecessor was the South African Railways and Harbours Union.

SATAWU is an affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and the International Transport Workers' Federation.

Chinese arms ship refusal

In May 2008, the An Yue Jiang, a ship from the People's Republic of China bearing a large amount of Chinese-manufactured weapons that were bound for Zimbabwe, had docked in Durban harbor; but the dock employees, who were all members of SATAWU, refused to unload the ship of its inventory. SATAWU and COSATU supported the refusal of the cargo, and trade union federations in other southern African countries also refused to unload the ship when it subsequently redocked in other harbors, such as Walvis Bay and Luanda.

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