IOL reports that the Liberated Metalworkers Union of SA (Limusa) has merged with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

Limusa was established as a Cosatu affiliate in 2014 after the federation expelled the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa). Registrar of Labour Relations advocate Lehlohonolo Molefe on Tuesday announced that Limusa and NUM would amalgamate to form a new union, which will retain the name NUM. The new NUM was registered with effect from Monday, 22 November. In 2019 Cosatu decided to merge Limusa and NUM. At the time, NUM said a special congress had been convened to finalise the work of its national congress, including issues pertaining to constitutional amendments that included the merger. Cosatu described Limusa as a special project which was relevant at a particular time and that it was necessitated by politics of the time. “Now Limusa competes in the sector with Numsa. Numsa on its own is no longer a metalworkers’ union per se; it is a general union because it has realised that to survive it needs to get out of the metal sector and explore mining and other areas. So, as a way of responding to these economic changes, the central executive committee of November 2018 took a decision that NUM and Limusa should merge,” the federation explained. It asserted that it needed a few but stronger unions, hence the need for realignment as retrenchments had dealt blows to some unions, resulting in them struggling to survive.

• Read the original of the report in the above regard by Loyiso Sidimba at IOL

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