THE STUC meets this week in Ayr, the first since Scotland’s referendum in September and just two weeks away from a general election. We are focusing on how Scotland progresses from here.

The agenda reflects not just the priorities of trade union members and the wider labour movement, but the people’s priorities, and demonstrates the feedback that many of us in the SNP have received on Scotland’s doorsteps.

Not only has SNP membership surged across the country (105,000 members and rising) but also the SNP trade union group membership currently stands at 14,629 — arguably the second-largest political organisation in Scotland in its own right.

Many of these new members come from a traditional labour movement background and have chosen the SNP as their political home. They want an end to austerity and pay freezes which drive their workmates to foodbanks.

They believe they have been left behind by other political parties who are not prepared to stand up for better employment rights, proper health and safety legislation and defend the safety net of social security for all.

It is important to point out that we are not a trade union, and nor do we wish to be. We are a network of members across the wide variety of trade unions in Scotland.

Many of us travel to union conferences across Britain and are acutely aware of differing approaches to public services post-devolution.

The systematic dismantling of the NHS, commercialisation and privatisation of the Health and Safety Executive and erosion of workers’ protection through privatisation and outsourcing are all more likely to be found in England and Wales than here in Scotland.

However, we are very clear that the focus of our group is to ensure that workplace issues and rights are part of SNP decision-making and policy, not the other way round.

Our members’ main reason for joining is the complaint that historically the focus of some unions is to put Labour Party interests first and foremost, sometimes to the detriment of representing members’ views at a local level.

We believe that membership of a trade union is more important than ever before, with the gap between rich and poor widening daily, collective bargaining being done on behalf of only 23 per cent of Scotland’s workers and many people feeling isolated and at the mercy of management and boardroom decisions, a strong voice for fairness in the workplace matters.

That’s why this week’s congress is perhaps the most important of all, with an opportunity to shape the debate in the next two weeks and beyond.

We believe that progressive work policies which boost the economy, end the scourge of low pay, eliminate zero-hours contracts and enhance trade union rights are priorities shared with the wider trade union movement and the SNP.

The SNP was the first political party to ensure policy requires that trade unions operate on a level playing field with employers, that employment legislation should be based on rights rather than immunities and it fully supports a charter of trade union rights.

Promoting economic growth rather than cuts reflects the reality that cutting public spending has increased the British deficit and that the ideological austerity experiment has failed on economic, moral, and social grounds.

The failure of the Smith Commission to devolve health and safety legislation denies Scottish workers the opportunity to end the disgraceful record of workplace death and injuries suffered by working people and the general public.

Scotland also requires the full control of employment tribunals to eliminate fees.

We believe that the TTIP trade deal, left unaltered, represents Thatcherism’s ultimate triumph and is a dangerous attack on the role of voters and government to shape the delivery and role of public services. It is for voters and governments to determine the role of public services — not faceless directors in boardrooms.

In the next two weeks Scottish voters face a choice. First to reject in large numbers the dangerous and neoliberal agenda of Ukip, which blames migrants for every social ill rather than the corporate scroungers who expect the public purse to bail out market failure.

And second, to use their vote to send the strongest message that austerity isn’t working and decide which party is best placed to represent their values and deliver real change. Scottish Labour has failed to understand the shift in public opinion.

People I meet daily tell me they won’t be bullied into sticking with Labour and resent being told there isn’t another option. Telling voters they’re being conned or fooled somehow by a positive message of change is counterintuitive.

There are those in the labour movement who simply refuse to accept that there are common values and common concerns across our two parties, but increasingly this is out of step with the very people they claim to represent and understand.

Calling the SNP a “roadblock” insults voters more than it does us and reeks of arrogance and hubris.

We in the SNP have an opportunity to improve the lives of not just our fellow Scots, but to bring about progressive change for our friends across Britain.

Post-referendum and regardless of the result next month, the SNP trade union group is organising our new resources to create campaigning units and structures to play a vital part in communities supporting victims of austerity and so-called welfare reforms, arguing that a better way of running the economy is possible.

I’m acutely conscious of the trust that working people are placing in the SNP to articulate and deliver the change their families and communities urgently need. We will work with those in the trade union and labour movement who share this vision, because we believe there was a message sent on September 18 2014 — something’s got to change.

• Chris Stephens is secretary of the SNP trade union group, a member of the SNP national executive and SNP parliamentary candidate for Glasgow South West.