China exempted itself from that clause, arguing that its federation of unions already speaks for workers.
Richard L. Trumka, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the nation's largest federation of unions, issued a statement against what he said were Mr. Hatch's "antiworker amendments".
Mr. McCain joked, "I never thought I'd be standing with Richard Trumka," referring to the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the nation's largest federation of unions.
The country's largest federation of unions, COSATU (which like the Communist Party shares power in the ruling coalition), gave formal notice of the strike last week.
"This action is unavoidable," Sawit Kaewwan, secretary general of a federation of unions representing state employees, said in announcing the planned cutoff of utilities.
The two groups are Change to Win, a federation of unions including the service employees, Teamsters and carpenters, and Unite Here, which represents apparel, hotel and restaurant workers.
When some 10 million Polish workers and farmers joined semiautonomous unions in response to this momentous agreement, the Interfactory Strike Committee was transformed into a national federation of unions under the name Solidarity (Solidarność), with Wałęsa as its chairman and chief spokesman.
IndustriALL Global Union, a federation of unions from 140 countries that has negotiated with numerous retailers, urging them to join the plan, announced late Wednesday that a total of 31 companies had signed on.
