Brendan Barber denied CBI claims unions were irrelevant

On the eve of the union's conference in Brighton, general secretary Brendan Barber said the link between earnings and state pensions had to be restored.

He said compulsory contributions in firm schemes should also be phased in.

"Unions will fight to defend pension benefits. We will negotiate, we will campaign and if we have to we will strike," Mr Barber said.

Only one in three workers now had a pension linked to their pay and half of workers would be reliant on state pensions when they retired, he said.

"They will be relying on the future generosity of governments, possibly unwise when both major parties want to reduce the proportion of pensions paid and neither will give a permanent guarantee to link the state pension to earnings."

Irrelevant, I don't think so Brendan Barber TUC general secretary

The TUC leader also criticised Confederation of British Industry director general Digby Jones for describing unions as being "increasingly irrelevant".

Unions had helped halt the closure of salary-related pension schemes, Mr Barber said.

"Only employees without unions to defend them now have employers who can get away with easy cuts to their pensions.

"Irrelevant, I don't think so."

Compulsory

On Sunday the TUC published new figures showing the number of workers in private firms who had a final salary pension scheme had fallen from 5.6 million in 1991 to 3.8 million in 2001.

NEW TUC PENSION FIGURES Basic state pension of �79.60 equals 17% of average national earnings UK state pension is 5% of GDP, the lowest in the EU, where the average is 10.4% Women's retirement income is 57% of men's 3% of Bangladeshi and Pakistani women have an occupational pension 30% of women now earn less than �200 per week in pensions compared to 37% in 1997 Civil servants face strike ballot

It said the decline would be even higher given the recent rise in scheme closures.

Workers in the hospitality, community care and construction sectors were most likely to have lost all pensions coverage.

Mr Blair will address the conference, which will also be attended by new Work and Pensions Secretary Alan Johnson, Chancellor Gordon Brown and Education Secretary Charles Clarke.

On Monday a motion before delegates will call for the government to make pension contributions compulsory for workers and employers.

HAVE YOUR SAY It's about time people actually saved for their own retirement Nathan Summers, UK Send us your comments

Plans to increase the retirement age of public sector employees will also be condemned along with changes to the local government pension scheme.

On Sunday, Mr Johnson told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost Labour's first priority was to deal with the "horrendous issue" of pensioner poverty.

He said the government's approach was "to encourage people to retire later, not to force them to retire later."

He continued: "We believe in flexibility here, of people making their own choices rather than insisting that they must work until, for instance say 70."

There is some optimism within the TUC after a 56-point deal was agreed on issues including pensions.

The agreement, reached at Labour's national policy forum in Warwick in July, includes workplace pledges on equality at work, holiday rights and pensions which union leaders hope will translate into Labour policy in a third term.

The threat to 104,000 civil service jobs will also dominate the conference after it was announced on Sunday that almost 300,000 civil servants will be balloted for a one-day national strike against government plans to cut jobs.