Six months on from 60,000 people taking to the streets of Manchester in defence of our NHS, the North West TUC comes together today for our annual conference to debate motions that will inform our work throughout 2014/15.

It’s an important year for us all as we defend ourselves against the government onslaught that is cutting public services, rolling back hard-fought-for terms and conditions and delivering real-term wage cuts to our members and to workers across Britain.

These battles are set against the context of coming European elections when we must ensure that far-right candidates who preach hate and division in our communities are opposed. And with a general election on the horizon, we must not only set out our opposition to the current ideological-driven attacks but make our case to any future government of the need for an alternative.

The range of motions tabled for conference shows the challenge we face as a movement.

It is a challenge we must face and win to ensure working people in north-west England and across Britain can go to work and earn a living that provides more than adequately for them and their families.

The continued misuse and abuse of zero-hour contracts have left workers, already in low-paid and precarious employment, feeling even more unsure and unable to plan for a future.

It’s disgraceful that employers use zero-hour contracts as a management tactic, with workers left fearing that if they speak out they might just find there are no hours for them on next week’s rota.

Unison’s Ethical Care Charter, which calls for an end to the use of zero-hour contracts in the care sector, and the successful BFAWU/Hovis dispute on zero-hour contracts show that we won’t just blindly accept them.

Conference meets in the middle of the TUC’s Fair Pay Fortnight, with events taking place across the region, which aims to highlight and win the argument for why Britain Needs a Pay Rise.

Here in north-west England we know the arguments well — workers have lost an average of £3,000 a year, 159,000 workers are paid the minimum wage and over half a million are paid below the living wage.

The consequence is a rise in poverty, higher now among working households and increasing use of food banks and fuel poverty for many.

We must do more to tackle low pay and ensure median pay rises through strong unions and collective bargaining agreements. As John Hendy QC reminded us this week, it is a fundamental human right.

In the same week that the NUT took industrial action, conference will look to reaffirm our view that we can and should do more to ensure we have a properly resourced, publicly run, world-class education system for our young people.

The challenge for our young people is no longer deciding what career they want to pursue but finding a job.

Youth unemployment remains stubbornly high. Unemployment in north-west England has bucked the national trend with a recent rise.

We need investment in jobs and skills that will help get people back to work, not more “welfare” programmes that stigmatise and target those out of work or unable to work, who find themselves competing against hundreds of others for a job or getting by on benefits that don’t cover the essentials any more.

We won’t let this government, or anyone, target young people, women, the disabled or those from black or ethnic minority backgrounds whose motions will be calling for greater equality.

Trade union membership has risen this year and we need to build on this, to make sure we have strong, effective, campaigning unions which focus on organising and defend their members, as well as keeping a sense of fairness and social justice at the heart of our movement.

We can do this and at conference we will talk about how we can make trade unions in north-west England bigger and stronger.

It will not be easy. We must build on what we have done and develop widespread support for our ideas and our values as we look towards the next national demonstration in London on October 18. As trade unions representing almost one million workers in north-west England come together, our message will be clear.

That we won’t sit back and take the attacks on our members and our communities. That we won’t allow a north-south divide. That we won’t allow all that we stand for and all that we have won to be taken away from us.

Conference this year in Liverpool promises to draw a line in the sand that we must do more — and we will.

Lynn Collins is North West Trades Union Congress (TCU) regional secretary