Farm worker union funding target reached

2 February 2015 | GroundUp Staff Brief

With only hours to go before the cut-off time, farm workers union Csaawu (Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union) has raised the target amount of R115,000 in its first phase of online crowd funding. The money will go towards paying for legal costs incurred for defending dismissed farm workers in the Cape Town Labour Court last year.

In support of the “Keep Csaawu Doors Open” fund raising campaign, two of Cape Town’s pre-eminent jazz artists, Shane Cooper and Reza Khota, drew scores of supporters to a gig in Longmarket Street. The event reportedly raised R13,000 for the embattled union.

The last amounts needed to reach an online IndieGoGo crowd funding target were donated by supporters on Monday afternoon.

In December 2014, the union launched an online campaign to save it from bankruptcy after it lost two farm worker dismissal cases in the Labour Court. The cases date back to the 2012/2013 agricultural strikes in the Western Cape. The Labour Court ordered that Csaawu pay the legal costs of the farmers at La Maison and Steytler Boerdery farms outside Robertson. Those costs amount to just over R600,000.

GroundUp could not reach the union leadership at time of publication. A message on their Facebook page however thanked “comrades and friends across the world”. A second phase of fundraising will be launched to raise the outstanding funds. But, for now, the union has announced its “doors will stay open”.

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