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South Africa's biggest union has called a one-day strike for Wednesday to highlight youth unemployment in the country, where one in four people are jobless, the union said.
The 340 000-member National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) drew its members from car manufacturing, the metal industry, transport and general workers.
The strike would be the latest in a string of work stoppages in Africa's largest economy, weeks before a May 7 general election.
"It is a strike that members in all other unions can join. We think half a million workers will take part," Numsa deputy-general secretary Karl Cloete told Reuters on Sunday.
In December, Numsa, the biggest bloc in the Congress of South African Trade Unions labour grouping, said it would not support the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in the election.
Many South Africans were disgruntled by the slow pace at which the ANC, led by President Jacob Zuma, was rolling back poverty two decades after the end of apartheid.
A strike over wages in the platinum sector had been going on for nearly two months and had cost employees more than R3.8-billion in lost earnings.
The strike had cost mining companies R8.6-billion in revenue so far, according to a tally updated almost every second on the Chamber of Mines' website.