TRADE unions in Wales will continue to work with Cardiff Bay’s Labour government while pushing for a new economy, Wales TUC president David Evans told conference yesterday.

He said that workers wanted to move away from “a reliance on low pay and insecure work which is bad for communities and damaging to our long-term economic prospects.

Mr Evans stressed that the cost-of-living crisis has dominated working people’s experience.

He noted that the average worker in Wales has lost more than £30 a week in real terms since 2010 and that the gap between the highest earners in London and those at the bottom of pay scales in Wales has shot up 10 per cent since 2000.

Wages manufacturing, hospitality and retail would not regain their 2007 pre-crash levels until 2025.

The WTUC president said that “working people and their children have sacrificed their prospects while those at the top are not just shielded but offered tax cuts in a cynical pursuit of a recovery for the few.”

Mr Evans pointed out that ideologically drivern Westminster cuts meant reduced resources for all, with the budget for Wales falling by £1.7bn from 2010/11 to 2015/16.

“The hurt and damage that is causing us in Wales is extreme. We are not getting a fair share. The budget is not just. We want a just Wales.”

Delegates stood for a minute’s silence in honour of Bob Crow, Tony Benn and other comrades who have died in the past year.