The Urban Training Project (UTP) was an initiative to encourage black workers in South Africa to form new trade unions.
During the 1960s, the Trade Union Council of South Africa (TUCSA) had first permitted unions representing black workers to affiliate, then banned them, in response to a backlash from many of its white affiliates. Its African affairs section closed in 1969. Former officials of the section established the Urban Training Project in Johannesburg the following year, with the intention of educating black workers on trade unionism and works councils.
Numerous trade unions were created through the work of the project:
Union Abbreviation Founded Building, Construction and Allied Workers' Union BCAWU 1975 Commercial Catering and Allied Workers' Union of South Africa CCAWUSA 1976 Glass and Allied Workers' Union GAWU 1975 Laundry and Dry Cleaning Workers' Association LDCWA 1972 National Union of Textile Workers NUTW 1973 Paper, Wood and Allied Workers' Union PWAWU 1974 South African Chemical Workers' Union SACWU 1972 Sweet, Food and Allied Workers' Union SFAWU 1974 United Automobile, Rubber and Allied Workers' Union UAW 1975
In 1973, the affiliates founded the Black Consultative Committee (BCC), as a loose federation. This began working closely with TUCSA, and led rival unions to accuse the BCC unions of not being truly independent.
In 1979, some of the committee's affiliates joined the new Federation of South African Trade Unions, leading to their expulsion from the group. Most of the remaining unions took part in the formation of the Council of Unions of South Africa on 14 September 1980.
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