SIR ­- Once more the union bashing season is upon us as evidenced by your correspondent Bob Watson and his chums the Taxpayer’s Alliance (Letters, September 11).

Whether one sympathises with his sentiments, trade unions have been responsible for the improvement of workers’ rights, pay and conditions over many years, including for those who, perhaps like him, prefer not to join but benefit like their members.

In today’s job markets, where minimum wages are often not paid (needing benefit top-up), where zero hour contracts are commonplace, where workers can be dispensed with on a whim and where this government’s fragile job creation record relies on part-time, short-term, non-jobs, is it surprising that more of the working population feel they need to be members than not?

Who is he to doubt the leader of Bradford Council when he states it is cost-effective for him to deal with a full-time official on their behalf?

Let’s see that protector of the public purse, the unelected lobby group that is the Taxpayers’ Alliance (the Tory party by any other name?), expend its energies on hounding the tax evaders and avoiders (routinely condoned) that make concessions to the trade union movement look like small change.

A Waterhouse, Barmby Road, Undercliffe, Bradford