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Midrand - Secretary-General of the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), Zwelinzima Vavi, ended the four-day Cosatu central committee meeting on Thursday on as sombre note, saying there will be a national strike before the end of the year.
But Vavi emphasized that strike action was still the last resort for the unions.
He said the strike would be necessary for employers to genuinely and honestly confront the crisis of ?super-exploitation' of poor workers through labour broking.
During the central committee meeting Cosatu called for its alliance partner, the African National Congress, to make sure that the legislation to ban labour broking was passed by parliament before the year-end.
Vavi said the government had to stop the arrival of "the super shark called Walmart" in SA and for the competition authorities to add more conditions to the deal, in which Walmart acquires SA mass discounter Massmart.
"We want investment, of course we do, but not at our expense," he said.
Vavi also said the arrival of Walmart would destroy the industrial and manufacturing base of South Africa.
The final demand was that government did something to alleviate the water crisis.
"We don't want to run out of drinking water by 2017, the workers will die. Surely everyone agrees with us on that," Vavi said.
Cosatu had earlier adopted its draft resolution and used the opportunity to fire a warning shot at its alliance partner the ruling African National Congress, saying it must implement the policies of the 2008 Polokwane Conference and the 2009 general election.
The declaration also said the government had to "pull up their socks".
Other resolutions adopted by the country's largest labour federation were the immediate banning of labour brokers, recognition that SA had become the most unequal country on earth, rising unemployment caused by the global financial crisis and the extent of corruption.
But Vavi emphasized that strike action was still the last resort for the unions.
He said the strike would be necessary for employers to genuinely and honestly confront the crisis of ?super-exploitation' of poor workers through labour broking.
During the central committee meeting Cosatu called for its alliance partner, the African National Congress, to make sure that the legislation to ban labour broking was passed by parliament before the year-end.
Vavi said the government had to stop the arrival of "the super shark called Walmart" in SA and for the competition authorities to add more conditions to the deal, in which Walmart acquires SA mass discounter Massmart.
"We want investment, of course we do, but not at our expense," he said.
Vavi also said the arrival of Walmart would destroy the industrial and manufacturing base of South Africa.
The final demand was that government did something to alleviate the water crisis.
"We don't want to run out of drinking water by 2017, the workers will die. Surely everyone agrees with us on that," Vavi said.
Cosatu had earlier adopted its draft resolution and used the opportunity to fire a warning shot at its alliance partner the ruling African National Congress, saying it must implement the policies of the 2008 Polokwane Conference and the 2009 general election.
The declaration also said the government had to "pull up their socks".
Other resolutions adopted by the country's largest labour federation were the immediate banning of labour brokers, recognition that SA had become the most unequal country on earth, rising unemployment caused by the global financial crisis and the extent of corruption.
