Vigil over Remploy closure plans

12.53.00pm GMT Tue 4th Mar 2008

Workers fighting the closure of a factory in North Yorkshire which employs disabled people are holding 24-hour vigil outside York Minster. The Remploy plant is due to shut on Thursday. Twenty-eight sites across the UK, including five others in Yorkshire, are also being closed. Remploy wants to place more disabled people into mainstream employment rather than in sheltered workshops.

John Wilson, of the GMB union, said the closures would be fought until the end. Mr Wilson, a deputy shop steward, said: "We don't want to admit defeat. Until that day comes we've got to remain hopeful. We've chosen the Minster as the venue for the vigil because the Minster is a very important part of York and so is Remploy - it's been in the community for 59 years."

About 300 jobs are expected to be lost in Yorkshire when the Remploy factories close. Workers at plants in Barnsley, Bradford and Pontefract will be employed at other sites. Mr Wilson said staff at York were unable to transfer to another factory because of the long distance, and would have to find jobs in outside industry.

"This is supposed to be a modernisation plan, something which benefits the workforce but it's not, it's a closure plan," he said. "It's not just the work aspect for our staff but the social side of their life. They have built up a sense of protection here with their own friendship network."

The vigil ends at 1000 GMT on Wednesday.