It was affiliate with the African Food and Canning Workers' Union (AFCWU).
It was a founder member of the South African Congress of Trade Unions and spread through the fruit canning industry of the Boland, Western Cape and up the west coast among fishing communities.
[1] It was open to all races when it formed though the majority of its members were coloured with a minor black membership.
[2]: 343 By 1945, the union was being harassed by the Department of Labour, raiding it constantly to force it to remove its black members.
[3] After the National Party won in 1948, and with the establishment of its Apartheid policy, it would suffer the banning of several Secretary's and other union officials.