CLOSE to one in four jobs in Wales pay less than the living wage. 

The average worker is facing the fallout from the longest wage squeeze since the 1870s and more than 70,000 people have been forced to turn to food banks in Wales this year.

Meanwhile the British government talks up an economic recovery that has so far been restricted to the few, with tax cuts for the wealthiest guaranteeing deepening inequality across Britain.

In fact, the 2014 Rich List revealed that the 1,000 richest Britons saw their wealth soar by 15 per cent this year to an eye-watering £519 billion.

By contrast, TUC research from earlier this year showed it will take until 2025 for wages to recover to their pre-crash levels in industries such as construction, hospitality and manufacturing. 

In Wales, austerity continues to deliver unprecedented cuts to the funding available to the Welsh government. 

The block grant from the Westminster government in 2015/16 will be a staggering £1.7bn smaller than the 2010/11 figure. 

It is against this backdrop that trade unions have come together for the 2014 Wales TUC conference in Llandudno this week. 

Across the public and private sectors, unions have been fighting under immense pressure to prevent redundancies, protect terms and conditions and challenge the rising tide of insecure work, including zero-hours contracts and bogus self-employment. 

Last month, our Fair Pay Fortnight campaign hit the headlines with the news that the gap between pay at the top in London and those at the bottom in Wales had grown by over 10 per cent since 2000.

At our launch event, young shopworker and rep Bryony Hamblin explained the impact of life on too few hours and low pay.

Speaking at the Welsh Assembly, Hamblin told politicians that after the costs of travel alone she was left with a “measly” £140.36 to last the month. Not enough to leave home and not enough to get by without the support of her parents. 

Like so many others Hamblin would jump at the chance of a full-time job but in too many parts of the country those roles are simply not available. 

As British corporates sit on a cash pile of £477bn, underinvestment is leading to entrenched underemployment with around 69,000 people in Wales alone stuck on part-time hours but in need of full-time roles. 

As the campaign travelled across Wales we found overwhelming support for the call to make pay the number one issue at the 2015 general election.

In Swansea, the Wales TUC short film Britain Needs a Pay Rise, now available on YouTube, was also broadcast on the city centre’s big screen, relating the real story of the financial struggle faced by young people week in, week out.

Since last year’s conference trade unions have also made groundbreaking progress on an issue that has been the scourge of the construction industry for far too long.

The campaign to block companies guilty of blacklisting from public contracts became Welsh government policy in 2013 as new guidance was issued across the public sector. 

The campaign that dominated last year’s conference rightly made Britain-wide headlines as trade unionists backed up the news to demand a Leveson-style inquiry that forces companies to own up, pay up and clean up a disgraceful practice that has ruined so many lives. 

Our work also continues to use every possible method to prevent privatisation across our public services in Wales. We are leading ongoing negotiations to reissue the two-tier code in Wales since its abolition by the Westminster government. 

By stipulating that workers in outsourced services must enjoy the same terms and conditions as the directly employed workforce, we are backing up our campaign with concrete measures to resist privatisation that simply turns our public services into a race to the bottom on standards as well as pay and conditions. 

At this conference, trade unions have set out a forward-looking set of policies and campaigns to be debated with issues ranging from the living wage and mental health to ethical employment and the future of public service provision in Wales. 

Across industries and public services, we are not just fighting against the worst excesses of poor employment and greed. 

Trade unions are also setting the agenda for a better way to deliver excellent services and quality jobs with an approach that secures the full employment and industrial strategies necessary to bring about equality and social justice.

It has been a privilege to serve as Wales TUC president this year and as we set out the programme of work for the coming months and years, I am excited about the potential of our movement to lead an agenda that’s impossible for bosses and politicians to ignore.