29 April 2026
On this year’s Workers’ Day (1 May 2026), the Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) stands with workers who are holding this country together under immense strain. The reality points to a painful truth. Workers are tired. The cost of living keeps rising, but wages are standing still. Food is expensive, transport costs are relentless, and electricity tariffs continue to climb. The massive sustained electricity increases over the last 5 years have negatively impacted workers in their homes and industries that are now scaling down and in some instances resorting to retrenchments to counter this above inflation increases, against the back of Eskom making profits at the expense of job creation and economic growth. Healthcare is becoming harder to afford. Every month, workers are forced to stretch less and less. At the same time, job security is weakening. More workers are pushed into contract work, labour broking, and informal jobs with little protection. Young people remain locked out of the economy in their millions as unemployment continues to rob this country of its full potential. But this crisis is not confinedto one sector.
Workers in key industrial sectors are facing deep and sustained pressure. In mining, jobs continue to be lost as operations scale down or close. In the sugar industry, workers and small producers face uncertainty as the sector struggles to remain viable. Across manufacturing, deindustrialisation is hollowing out jobs that once sustained entire communities. Factories are closing, production is shrinking, and workers are left without alternatives. At the same time, illegal imports and under invoicing are distorting the market. Local industries are being undercut by unfair competition, while the fiscus loses billions in revenue that could have supported public services and economic development. Workers are paying the price for weak enforcement and policy gaps that allow this to continue. Public servants, on the other hand, are expected to deliver more with fewer resources, under growing pressure. Across both the public and private sectors, the message to workers is the same. Do more, accept less, and carry the burden. As FEDUSA, we gather under the theme: Reclaiming Workers’ Power and Dignity in an Age of Crisis.
Because that power has been eroded, and that dignity is being tested every day. Workers are now expected to absorb decisions they had no hand in making. Above-inflation increases, from medical aid to fuel, are cutting into already strained incomes. Policy shifts have quietly tilted the balance away from labour. Workers are told to be patient, to understand, and to tighten their belts, while inequality deepens. On this Workers’ Day, we also pause to remember where we come from. The rights workers enjoy today were not handed over freely. They were fought for. The right to organise, to bargain, and to be treated as human beings in the workplace are the result of sustained struggle.
Before democracy, workers resisted a system built on exclusion and cheap labour. After 1994, that struggle continued to secure minimum standards, protections, and a voice. Those gains are now under pressure. And we will not watch them being rolled back. May Day is not just a celebration. It is a line in the sand, for FEDUSA and workers all over the country. Workers cannot continue to carry the economy while being denied a fair share of it. FEDUSA will continue to organise, to push back, and where necessary, to escalate. We call for decisive action to protect local industries, to confront illicit trade practices, and to rebuild an economy that creates decent, sustainable jobs. South Africa needs a worker-centred path. One that protects wages, reins in the cost of living, supports industrial growth, and restores balance in the economy. One that treats workers not as a cost, but as the backbone of this country.
On this Workers’ Day, FEDUSA stands firm alongside workers across all sectors. Workers built this country. Workers keep it running. And workers deserve better.
END.