Unison's annual conference meets with less than a year to go until we get the chance to say what we think of this rotten Tory-led government at the ballot box. But a year is a long time in which the Tories and Lib-Dems can do even more damage to our fragile economy and to our hard-pressed public services.

The next 11 months are crucial to developing policies that resonate with the public, to give people hope that a new government, a different government, would really make a difference.  

What we are all crying out for is an alternative to austerity, to cold, callous, heartless cuts — an alternative to making the rich richer and positive moves that would rebuild the damaged fabric of our society. 

Delegates to our conference will set out their policy and campaigning agenda for the coming year. Top of that will be the peril faced by our public services and the dire state of their pay.  

Our members have kept the public services going in spite of pay freezes and squeezes. 

Local government workers have seen the value of their pay drop by 18 per cent since 2010 and NHS and others by up to 15 per cent. 

At the same time the cost of basic essentials soars. Food, fuel and housing costs all contribute to the daily struggle to make ends meet. More and more demands for help are being made on the union’s charity There For You. 

Tax hand-outs for the rich and benefit cuts for the poor is the mantra of austerity Britain. Huge job cuts in those public services and the rise of low-paid, part-time or zero-hours jobs is the order of the day. 

We have the scandalous spectre of people in work having to rely on benefits to make ends meet in the nation that has the highest number of billionaires. No wonder our members’ anger is mounting and strike ballots are in play.

Whatever happens in those ballots, the simmering discontent at this totally unjust state of affairs won’t be contained for long. And we will see action over the summer, leading up to the TUC national demonstration under the banner “Britain needs a pay rise” in October.

One of the biggest hidden dangers to our public services lurks in the background in the form of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — the proposed trade agreement between the EU and the US. This is an issue I know that the Morning Star has highlighted. 

The TTIP could serve as a model for all future trade agreements and it doesn’t just remove trade tariffs but opens markets in the service sector, including in health, social services and higher education. 

It harmonises regulatory standards that puts at risk current safeguards in public health, social and employment rights, health and safety and the environment. 

It also proposes allowing multinational investors to challenge state actions that they think will threaten their investments. 

Such a move would affect the ability of national governments to act in the public interest. For example, the Canadian government has spent millions of dollars fighting claims by US firms under a similar trade agreement.

Our NHS, already plunged into turmoil and privatisation by the Health and Social Care Act, would also become vulnerable to private healthcare multinationals using the proposed trade agreement to prevent a future government bringing it back into public control. 

The TTIP is coupled with the new EU public procurement directive that weakens public control and encourages a market-driven approach to public services. 

As a union, we believe that citizens, not markets, should be at the heart of our public services. We will be mounting a huge campaign against this insidious agreement, working with unions across Europe and the US. 

Our aim is to drive home how dangerous these proposals are and to work for the return of our vital services to public control, and to make sure that workers are given dignity and protected from exploitative bosses.

Back in the conference hall, the fight for decent pay rates underpinned by a living wage is the over-riding debate — it is the hallmark of a civilised society that we all strive for. 

Dave Prentis is general secretary of Unison.