Save Remploy

The network of government-subsidised supported employment factories operating under the Remploy banner are under threat of closure. The consultation on the Sayce Review comes to an end on Monday. The workers and their trades unions have been collecting signatures on a petition as part of their campaign to save the factories. (You can 'like' their facebook page here).

I paid a visit to the Porth factory yesterday. Many of the workers there would love to work in mainstream employment. However, they know the jobs climate isn't good in the valleys and they know plenty of former colleagues who lost their jobs in the Trefforest factory three years ago who are now on benefits. If their Remploy factory closes, they know they are unlikely to get another job.

There is a need for supported employment. There is also a need for services to help people with disabilities get in to and stay in mainstream employment. In some places, there are very few jobs.

With job losses in Wales rising fast, Welsh government action should be taken to protect the 400 plus jobs in the Welsh Remploy factories. I have put the case for the devolution of the Remploy budget, asking the First Minister to make respresentations to Westminster and for a commitment to saving the jobs should the devolution request be granted.

With political will and creativity, for example, by looking at how public procurement contracts could be granted by using article 19 of the EU directive, not only to protect existing Remploy jobs but to expand supported employment opportunities in Wales. I was told yesterday that the Porth factory would be a viable business if they had just one local authority's IT contracts. Remploy has a future in Wales if our government wants it.

Remploy Trefforest workers betrayal

The Remploy factory in Trefforest is closing today because of a decision made by Peter Hain when he was Secretary of State for Wales. Remploy was founded in 1945 to offer employment to people with disabilities, particularly soldiers injured in World War Two.

I have met the workers and union organisers on a number of occasions. To be there with them today when they walked out of the factory for good was soul destroying. Despite managing to negotiate six transfers to another factory, a large proportion of the remaining 75 fear they'll never work again.

A job in Remploy utilised their skills in a protected environment. It gave them the dignity that will be taken away from them when they sign on tomorrow. One worker described his old workplace as a community, free of the discrimination that exists against disabled people in the wider world.

Five senior GMB union officials have resigned from the Labour Party over what they have called the “despicable betrayal” of disabled workers at the closing Remploy factories. In a damning letter to Gordon Brown, GMB national secretary Phil Davies said that he had been a member of the Labour Party for nearly 30 years, but that his party’s treatment of Remploy workers was so unjust that he had no option but to resign.

Working people in the Valleys have long given their support to the Labour party. For them to be treated in this way is despicable. These GMB officials have taken a clear and principled stand. The way that the Westminster government has treated the Remploy workers in Trefforest is unforgivable. This episode demonstrates once again that New Labour in London could not be more distant from the admirable principles of social justice on which their party was founded.