CONGRESS delegates united to defend a dignified retirement for all yesterday, calling on Labour to reverse the Con-Dem theft of workers’ pensions.

Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack met tumultuous applause as he highlighted firefighters’ determination to see off Tory plans to make them work longer and pay more for smaller pensions.

“We are still fighting. We are still taking industrial action,” he announced.

“Firefighters don’t want to take action — it’s a terrible thing to have to do — but we will not be robbed.”

Mr Wrack noted that his members’ defiant action had already won concessions from the Scottish and Northern Irish authorities, but Westminster still refused to listen.

Academic union UCU delegate Martin Levy said the government was pitting private-sector workers against those in the public sector — “with the result that all workers are paying more for their pensions and employers are paying less.”

He warned against right-wing schemes to undermine the welfare state by bringing in means testing for retirement benefits.