With just over a year to go before the general election, workers affected by four years of austerity will be debating their priorities.

Our annual meeting takes place over the weekend after the latest Budget was announced by the government. We know that growth and recovery is not evident across Yorkshire and the Humber.

Many women and young people have borne the brunt of the austerity cuts, with unemployment still rising among women in the region. In particular the media, the law and finance are still shedding jobs.

Many so-called new jobs are low-paid and part-time, many of them on zero-hours contracts where people are underemployed.

Many young, well-qualified graduates are performing jobs usually reserved for school-leavers because of the lack of graduate opportunities.

Wages have still to recover to the pre-crash levels of 2008 and this is holding back recovery in the north. What we need is business investment, house-building, development of green industries, and an improvement in rights at work, leading to stronger trade unions representing more people at work in different sectors.

Only by having strong unions can we improve wages and living standards, which have been declining in value since 1980.

Nearly 200 delegates and visitors will spend the best part of two days discussing a number of work priorities, including motions on improved transport links across the region.

Also being debated are motions to outlaw zero-hours contracts in colleges and universities, terms and conditions in local government, changes made to employment tribunals which make it easier for bad bosses to sack their workers and the misuse of public funds in education. Pensions, reductions in wages and ways into work for young people will also be high on the priority list of delegates.

Motions on how to challenge the derecognition of trade unions and new rights for equality representatives will also be debated.

This year has been a very difficult year for workers in our region. Pay freezes and cuts, coupled with reductions in work benefits and the lack of well-paid opportunities, are all contributing to the sluggish growth we have seen in Yorkshire and the Humber.

We will take forward from our conference this huge agenda with our union colleagues to seek improvements for working people in the run-up to the general election in 2015.

One subject which highlights the gap between high and low earners is a GMB initiative to give the red card to low pay at the region's football clubs.

While some players are reputed to earn very high salaries, ground staff and match day workers earn the minimum wage.

The GMB calls this difference obscene and is calling for top-flight clubs to adopt the living wage for their ground staff and match day workforce.

Visitors and speakers include shadow chancellor Ed Balls, TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady, our own Mohammed Taj - TUC president from Yorkshire - and special guest after-dinner speaker Richard Wilson, star of stage and TV.