Remploy crusade begins its journey

The campaign to stop the closure of 43 of the 83 Remploy factories and redundancies of up to 5,000 disabled workers has not abated during the summer and it will be difficult for government ministers to ignore it on their visits to the TUC in Brighton, or Labour’s Bournemouth conference.

The Remploy Crusade, launched in Aberdeen on 28 August will gather support throughout Scotland, England and Wales, visiting over 60 factory sites, before arriving in Bournemouth on 24 September.

The union campaign is calling on public procurement decision makers to move orders to Remploy factories. Their orders already have an annual value of £32 million for Remploy and amount to 22% of all the orders in the 83 factories.

The GMB general union, which is managing the crusade on behalf of the other Remploy unions (Unite and Community), argues that Remploy’s share of public procurement orders stands at just 0.024% per annum and that moving orders to Remploy factories would amount to 5p in every £100 of current public procurement spending.

The issue has been kept alive over the summer by the Remploy Consortium of Trade Unions, with letters to local councillors, school governors and members of police authorities, and a range of local activities.

• Full details of the Crusade can be found on the GMB website at www.gmb.org.uk