Remploy – a year after the last closure

A year ago today the last Remploy factory officially shut its doors. That was a sad day for me and thousands of other working people across the country.

Since I left school at 16 I’d worked at Remploy Sheffield, starting out work as a welder and in recent years representing fellow workers as a GMB trade union convenor. For a lot of us at Remploy, the factories offered secure employment, the dignity of work and a workplace that understood our circumstances.

I stood on the picket lines as factories started to close with people who were terrified about life after Remploy – people who knew that, especially in a time of high unemployment, they just weren’t going to get another job. They were leaving a job they loved for a life of ATOS, ESA (and any manner of other acronyms you might want to name) and being told by this government that they’re scroungers. Some of them were even hit by the Bedroom Tax as the government effectively sacked them.

And unfortunately, the fears of many Remploy workers were realised.

When I spoke to the people I used to represent earlier this year, half of them were still out of work and a good chunk chose to retire instead of struggling on. A GMB survey showed that only a quarter of the workers I represented had managed to find a job but of those, quite a few were on part-time, agency and zero hours contracts that offered little security.

Personally, as some people will have read in a blog I wrote post Lord Freud’s comments, I’ve gone from doing skilled work to holding down a couple of jobs on zero hours contracts, one of which is to steward football games on a Saturday. As a Sheffield United fan, it’s punishment enough to have to steward Leeds games, but at the same time I know that every game is one week closer to potentially ending up back on the dole.

My story isn’t unique. This is what real life is like for people like me now because whether we like it or not, employers are less likely to employ a disabled worker than someone without a disability.

So for all the government guff about people needing to get a job (and that’s polite language for LabourList, it might be slightly saltier on the shop floor…), what this government did with Remploy was to throw thousands of people who had jobs, who were skilled and who were ready, willing and able to work at the worst onto the scrap heap and at best into a very long dole queue.

I’m glad Labour have said they’ll look at supported work schemes again but I hope they’ll work with us too to make work, rights and pay for disabled people fit for the 21st century.

With a little help, and like has been done at places like Enabled Works in Leeds, we can give real hope to people who are feeling the brunt of this government’s cuts agenda at every turn. If Labour stands with us, we’ll stand with you.

We’re not looking for a hand-out, we’re looking for a hand up.

James Stribley is a former GMB rep and Remploy Sheffield worker