[3] Most of the members of these unions were not recognised by the government or the employers, for the purposes of participation in the statutory industrial relations system established in 1924.
CNETU also included an important Trotskyist current, linked to the Workers' International League, and organised around the Progressive Trade Union Group.
The Jan Smuts government meanwhile also introduced wartime measures that sharply limited the scope for union activities.
[5] In 1946, the CNETU's largest affiliate, the miners' union, led the massive but unsuccessful African Mine Workers' Strike.
Soon after the passing of the Native Labour (Settlement of Disputes) Act, 1953, which essentially banned almost all strikes by black African workers, CNETU collapsed.