A strong trade union federation in alliance with a governing party that can't extract a social compact to increase the number of teachers, healthcare workers, police and social workers should hang its head in shame, argues Mbhazima Shilowa.
During the apartheid years, workers used May Day celebrations to highlight their plight on the shop floor, communities, and the country.
At the time, the enemy was well-defined. It was the apartheid regime and its satellite Bantustans and employers who were the biggest beneficiaries of cheap labour, the migrant system and overall denial of even the minimum rights of workers as enshrined in the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) Convention.