They joined the now-independent No 5 branch en masse, and in 1961 this founded the Engineering Industrial Workers' Union.
[2] It affiliated to the Trade Union Council of South Africa (TUCSA), and grew rapidly: from 430 members in 1962,[3] to 11,849 in 1980.
[4] The union resigned from TUCSA in 1985, in protest at its focus on white workers.
It renamed itself as the Engineering, Industrial and Mining Workers' Union.
On 1 August 1995, it merged with the AEU, the Iron Moulders' Society of South Africa, and the South African Boilermakers' Society, to form the National Employees' Trade Union.