LEADING trade unionists have made clear their backing for the manifesto unveiled by Ed Miliband, emphasising the areas in which Labour rejects the conservative coalition's austerity agenda.

They are correct to draw the conclusion that working people will gain more from a government led by Miliband than one with David Cameron at its head.

Despite Cameron's rhetoric prior to the 2010 election, when he pretended that the Tory leopard had changed its spots, taking office with Liberal Democrat collusion has enabled him, George Osborne and the rest of the spawn of the uber-rich to force through the vicious attacks we've witnessed over the past five years. 

Apart from pushing up tuition fees for students to £9,000 a year, the coalition has slashed the top rate of income tax to 45 per cent, hammered the poor and disabled through the bedroom tax and cut living standards for all but the richest by pushing VAT by 20 per cent.

This is in addition to reducing spending on public services outside health and education.

Attacking the public sector throws tens of thousands of people out of union-organised, better-paid employment to compete in the Wild West of zero-hours contracts and other areas of insecurity. 

It also undermines state regulatory services such as health and safety and results in just 300 tax inspectors bearing responsibility for seeking out tax evasion compared with over 10 times that number sniffing out alleged benefit fraud.

Miliband has struck a chord with voters in adopting a more class-based approach than Labour has done in decades, expressed in the slogan about building "an economy that works for working people."

However, the constant warnings by Ed Balls and his Treasury team of non-specific "tough decisions" to be taken over and above a freeze on child benefit and means-tested pensioner benefits should put all Labour supporters on guard.

Balls' statement that "I'll save the NHS but I'm not going to make promises until we can show where the money is going to come from" is remarkable both for its megalomania and its austerity-lite flavour.

The last Labour government's reservation of £1.3 trillion to bail out private banks shows that this country is not broke.

Wealth is here in abundance. It's simply in the wrong hands. There is no justification for any cuts in benefits, public services or workers' living standards.

The dead hand of Balls and the Treasury team is apparent in the manifesto failure to plump for taking back our railways from privateers currently milking them for the benefit of shareholders. 

After three decades of untrammelled privatisation by the Tories and new Labour, Labour still cannot bring itself to propose a single instance of extending public ownership.

Public opinion is way ahead of Labour on nationalising rail, gas, electricity, water and banks.

Another major omission in Labour's manifesto is with regard to trade union rights that have been whittled away over the same timespan.

This is despite a positive reference to our trade unions "as an essential force for a decent society and as guarantors of skills and fair wages."

Unions could so those jobs more efficiently if they were free from legal shackles, especially over solidarity action, but Labour has nothing to say about removing these chains.

The organised labour movement's first priority is to defeat the conservative coalition on May 7, but the really hard work will start on May 8.