But workers must not put their faith in this. Remember that political parties, even left-wing ones, continue to exploit the working class because they don't abolish the exploitation of the working majority by a small elite, even if it is an elite of "comrades".
And remember also, that the sheer size of a union means nothing to the workers - unless it is internally democratic. Unless the entire membership has direct control over the mega-union, instead of it being controlled by its own elite class of paid bureaucrats, it will never be an effective fighting force for the members and the working class as a whole. COSATU president, John Gomomo, himself warned of this, saying: "We must get back to the basics of trade unionism and prioritise the basic servicing of our members". He also said labour would wage "a bitter offensive" against the ANC's anti-worker GEAR economic policy.
Sadly, CEPPWAWU has also indicated it will establish an investment arm to raise funds. The danger of investing in capitalist firms is that workers may one day find themselves prevented by union leadership from striking because the union has investments in the company the workers are fighting.
Buthelezi warned that if CEPPWAWU ever decided to strike, it would "stop the whole country". "We know that employers are panicking," he smiled, recalling that in recent years, CWIU had forced chemicals company, AECI and fuel processor, Sasol, to pay millions of Rands into social funds to protect workers who were retrenched. He said this was necessary because about 400 workers a month were being laid off in the sector covered by the new union: chemical, petroleum, packaging, glass and printing. Buthelezi estimated that the CEPPWAWU had the potential to grow to about 150 000 members. He said potential leadership problems had been avoided by having the two founder unions split leadership posts equally between them. Whether this will strengthen the left or the right in the union is not clear. PPWAWU was more conservative and ANC-linked than CWIU.