JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- With about 50,000 jobs losses looming in both the public and private sectors in 2019, South Africa's largest trade union federation said it is ready to embark on a national march in protest against this.
The Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) General Secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali on Tuesday said in Johannesburg that workers are ready to defend their livelihood.
"Cosatu believes the labor movement must develop ways of contesting retrenchments at an industry-wide and economy. We demand a moratorium on all retrenchments," Ntshalintshali said.
Cosatu is expecting thousands of members to participate in the march in eight provinces next Wednesday.
Ntshalintshali said workers' views on the structure of the economy should be considered.
"The fight against job losses means that workers must have a say in how the economy is structured and managed."
State-owned entities such as power utility Eskom and mining companies especially in the platinum sector are among those expected to retrench workers.
Cosatu's spokesperson Sizwe Pamla explained to Xinhua that generating profits is the main reason companies resort to retrenching workers.
"When we were doing an assessment, we realized that it's profits more than anything else that push the retrenchments."
