43 Disabled Workers’ Factories Axed

The country’s biggest employer of disabled workers is to close 43 factories under cost-cutting plans, unions have been told. The scale of closures planned by Remploy is worse than unions were expecting and sparked warnings of a national strike.

The company employs 5,000 disabled staff in 83 factories manufacturing a variety of goods for companies. Unions were told on Tuesday that 32 factories will close altogether and a further 11 will merge with other sites, leading to a total of 43 closures, more than half of the company’s number of plants.

Phil Davies, national officer for the GMB union, said every part of Britain will be hit by closures, including Aberdare, Abertillery and Bridgend, Treforest and Wrexham in Wales, Bradford, Halifax, Leicester, Manchester, Southend, Wigan and York in England and Lanarkshire in Scotland.

“We do not accept this level of closures and we will fight to maintain the current factory network. The trade unions do not accept the financial arguments that have been put forward and we are concerned at the way the company has conducted itself in the last few weeks, including leaking information to the media.”

Mr Davies also criticised six charities which have supported the closure plans, accusing them of acting in a “despicable manner”. He said unions will now consult with their members but he raised the prospect of a national industrial action ballot across all 5,000 workers employed at the factories.

Les Woodward, a disabled worker based in Swansea, south Wales, said: “We feel frustrated and totally betrayed by the company and the Government. This has come as a complete shock to us all – we did not expect such decimation. They have declared war on us.”