Union leaders have attacked the government's austerity measures on Monday, as they gathered in London for their annual conference.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is due to back calls for an "autumn of discontent" to resist public spending cuts, with strikes planned for October and November.
Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) accused ministers of pursuing "cruel" cuts in public spending.
"The coalition has set the cruel and mistaken objective of getting rid of the deficit in just four years. This is not just austerity - it is austerity on speed, rashly carried out at a time when yields on UK debt are at historic lows," he told delegates.
"We've seen the deepest cuts in the UK since the 1920s. Deeper cuts than in any country outside of those with sovereign debt crises. And cuts that would make even Margaret Thatcher look like a spendthrift."
Barber also criticised the government's response to the London riots and said ministers were wrong to reach for "simplistic cliches about moral decay".
"High moral standards, yes of course, but not just for the poor and the ordinary, they must be for the rich and the privileged too," he said.
And Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey is expected to deliver a stinging attack on the coalition government and urge people to resist "oppressive" anti-union laws.
"Law is an essential thing for a civilised society. But oppressive laws designed to hold back ordinary people, pushed through a parliament of expense cheats by a cobbled-together coalition which no-one voted for must be resisted.
"If this government considers tax avoidance is lawful and can go unpunished then we should plan for anti-union law avoidance in the same spirit."
He will add: "These Bullingdon Bolsheviks in government are threatening to bring in still further laws to attack free trade unionism."
Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury has dismissed the attacks as "sabre-rattling".
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said he believed the TUC had behaved in a "very responsible way" and accused the government of trying to cause strikes.
Speaking on the BBC he refused to be drawn on whether Labour would support any industrial action.
"You can never say in advance there's never a justified strike, that's ridiculous," he said. "What we've got is a government trying to provoke confrontation".
Labour leader Ed Miliband is set to address the conference on Tuesday.