Disabled to join workshop protest

Workers from B-Line will be joining an anti-cuts protest outside the council's budget meeting on February 24.

The workshop, which makes kitchens for council houses, employs 47 people, just under half of whom are disabled.

Community – the union for blind and disabled workers – is campaigning to keep the workshop open.

Community Union deputy general secretary Joe Mann said: "It would be a total false economy for the council to close the B-Line factory as the cost to society will greatly increase to support Community Union's members if they're unemployed.

"The Liberal Democrat council seems content to put our blind and disabled members out on the street. Community Union will do what we can to win the council back for Labour to end this kind of devastating decision-making, where cuts fall on vulnerable people."

Union representative Martin Butler, who is registered blind, has worked for B-Line for just over 25 years, said: "It could be the worst case scenario, but if there's no funding there come April 5, then basically our jobs are at risk."

Council leader Carl Minns has previously said funding streams had run out and the workshop was running at a loss.

Labour group leader Coun Steve Brady said the workshop was not sustainable but efforts had to be made to find workers a suitable alternative job.

He said: "The B-Line structure is not sustainable – financially it has never been viable. Whether there hasn't been willingness to make it viable I really don't know.

"Some may choose to go on early retirement or redundancy but the ones who want to be stop should be at the top of the list for redeployment and every effort should be used to look at jobs within the structure."