Remploy workers strike against factory closures

The coalition government plans to shut down 36 of the 54 Remploy factories in the UK, potentially making 1,700 workers unemployed. The strike affected all Remploy sites

The redundancy package being offered is also significantly less than that offered in previous rounds of layoffs at Remploy. After management broke off negotiations with unions in June, factory closures were announced with some closing as early as the 18th August.

Despite the government and it's much-criticised Work Programme focussing on "removing the obstacles to employment" (supposedly reducing unemployment through sanctions and unpaid labour - although there are significantly more jobseekers than job openings in this country), the disabled workers at Remploy will be thrown on the dole and risk being pushed into workfare.

Remploy is a government-owned company set up in the 1940s for placing disabled people in work. As well as owning and operating a number of factories and services, it places disabled people in jobs and recently administered the previous government's New Deal programme.