Workers attend campaign meeting to save Remploy

Disabled workers, who have had their livelihoods threatened by the proposed closure of 36 Remploy factories, will attend a campaign meeting this evening to discuss how to progress their campaign against closures – and to hear colleagues from across the country speak of their plight.

The Remploy workers are distraught at the company’s decision to shut 36 of the 54 Remploy sites this summer, with compulsory redundancies for 1,752 people, of whom 1,518 are disabled. The first closures are imminent and the remaining 18 factories will be forced to shut by the end of 2013.

The public meeting at Faraday House, on Old Gloucester Street, London, will be led by present and past Remploy workers who have vowed to fight the closures and will voice their opposition to the proposals. Loyal staff, outraged at this announcement, will be demanding that these proposals are dropped.

Mark Stewart, Unite shop steward and line worker at Remploy’s North London factory, said: “I was unemployed for nearly seven years before I started working at Remploy. For me, this meant an independence which benefits could not buy. I don’t want to go back to signing-on.

“Remploy workers should not be treated like this and we will fight to save our livelihoods. We want to work and not claim benefits.”

Ray Dearman, who worked for Remploy until the Brixton factory closed down four years ago, said: “In the four years since losing my job at Remploy, I have been for scores of job interviews only to receive rejection after rejection. All these knock backs has had a terrible affect on my mental health and I fear this will be repeated up-and-down the country, if these closures go ahead. 

“We have been told that we should be in mainstream employment, but there are simply no jobs out there for us.”