Needs workers to join wife (5)
I believe the answer is:
wants
'needs' is the definition.
(want is a kind of need)
'workers to join wife' is the wordplay.
'workers' becomes 'ants' (I've seen this before**).
'to join' says to put letters next to each other.
'wife' becomes 'w'.
'ants' after 'w' is 'WANTS'.
(Other definitions for wants that I've seen before include "Needs" , "Desires" .)