Remploy Sales Up By 12.2%

7 Aug 2012

Last month, the government announced that 27 factories will close by the end of the year throwing about 1,700 disabled workers out-of-work. A further nine factories face an uncertain future. The remaining 18 sites are due to close or be sold-off next year. Remploy employees have held two 24-hour strikes recently in a bid to force a government rethink, which have received enormous public support. Further protests are planned.

The full list of Remploy factories facing closure or sell off are: Aberdare, Abertillery, Acton, Ashington, Barking, Birkenhead, Bolton, Cleator Moor, Gateshead, Lanarkshire, Leeds, Leicester, London (Haringay), Manchester, Merthyr Tydfill, Newcastle, Oldham, Penzance, Pontefract, Preston, Southampton, Spennymoor, Stoke-on-Trent, Swansea, Wigan, Worksop and Wrexham.

Phil Davies, GMB National Secretary, said: “After the two days of strike action we are now asking the Remploy workers to discuss the next stage in the campaign. This could include demonstrations in London and other cities in September during the Para- Olympic games. We are not ruling out further industrial action.

Clearly this pension atrocity will also apply to the other 18 sites, plus Employment Services and Close Circuit Television monitoring.

GMB has strongly criticised the silence of the Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith in failing to offer any help to the soon-to-be made redundant 1,700 Remploy workers – unlike the Welsh Government which has pledged £2.4 million for employers who give jobs to Remploy workers when the factories in Wales close.

Both GMB and Unite have been campaigning to keep the Remploy factories open as viable businesses. The unions are citing the recent upbeat assessment of Remploy’s future prospects from Alan Hill, Managing Director, Remploy Enterprise Businesses covering all 54 factories who wrote that: “We have grown our sales by 12.2%, a fantastic achievement.”