Union chief rejects 'irrelevant' claim

The leader of the TUC in the UK today hit back at claims that trade unions were irrelevant and issued a fresh warning that workers will strike over the pensions crisis.

General Secretary Brendan Barber attacked company directors for setting a bad example over pensions and criticised CBI Director General Digby Jones who recently lambasted unions for being “increasingly irrelevant”.

Mr Barber, speaking on the eve of the TUC Congress in Brighton, said only one in three workers now had a pension which was linked to their pay.

He stood alongside a “pensions wheel of fortune” on Brighton seafront to highlight the fact that half of workers will be dependent on state benefits when they retired.

“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.

“One in four people are what we call the pensions gamblers. They are relying on either stakeholder, personal or occupational schemes that rely on investments.”

Mr Barber urged the Government to recognise the depth of the pensions crisis and said the link between state pensions and earnings had to be restored.

The TUC leader said unions had reversed the tide of closures of salary related pension schemes.

He added: “Unions will fight to defend pension benefits. We will negotiate, we will campaign and if we have to we will strike.

“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.”

Prime Minister Tony Blair will address the conference tomorrow amid reports that he is considering requiring every worker to contribute to a state-run pension.

The Prime Minister’s advisers are said to be drawing up plans to introduce a single state pension to which all workers must contribute through National Insurance.

It would pay out more than £100 (€146.70) per week to pensioners.

The new Work and Pensions Secretary Alan Johnson will make his first major speech to the conference this week since being appointed to the post.