Disabled staff ready to down tools again

Staff at Remploy sites across Britain will walk out for a second time after a “successful” stoppage last week.

Unite and the GMB are organising the protests against the planned closure of 27 Remploy factories by the end of the year, including those in Leeds and Pontefract, with a further 18 due to shut or be sold off next year, and another nine facing an uncertain future.

Ministers argue the factories are loss-making, and money would be better spent helping workers find jobs elsewhere. But campaigners say the staff are unlikely to find jobs elsewhere and Remploy offers them both dignity and a wage.

Unite’s national officer, Sally Kosky, said: “The Government needs to hear the very loud call that there needs to be a radical change of policy over the future of the Remploy factories.”