Mr. Purnell, I Support the Remploy Workers - Do You?

A double sided poster (see above) was handed out to some residents of the Stalybridge and Hyde constituency over action demanded from James Purnell, cabinet secretary of state for work and pensions over the closure/merge of 28 Remploy Factories. I have copied the text from the poster so it is easier for people to read:

James Purnell MP Friend or Enemy of Disabled Workers??

This man has the power to reverse one of the most dispicable decisions made by any political party, let alone a party founded on the principles of defending working people's rights as the Labour Party is, within living memory and that is the decision to close 28 Remploy factories that his predecessor Peter Hain endoresed on the 29th November 2008.

Remploy workers call on James Purnell, the new pensions Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, to halt the Remploy closure programme, hold a propper review of the company, not from the bottom up as is the case now but from the top down.

Remploy workers whether disabled or non disabled are being made to pay the ultimate price, with their jobs, for the innefficiencies within the company. This is a diabolical situation for both the workers in the Remploy factories, many of whom are Labour voters and the disabled people who need to come off benefit and could have the benefit of being in a Remploy factory, for short, medium or long term, learning skills and getting back to work.

Mr. Purnell, as a Labour minister we beseech you to do the right thing for Remploy workers. It is never to late to tackle an injustice and there is no bigger injustice than that Remploy workers face now!!

Stop the Remploy Closures.

Certainly a powerful message from the GMB. It is strange that the GMB Union are stepping on James Purnell's toes very close to home and I would like to make a point that there are NO Remploy factories in Tameside. This press release could of easily have been done on a national level, but by them stepping into Purnell's constituency of Stalybridge and Hyde, makes this a completely different ball game for two reasons. One, they are asking people to put this poster in their windows, secondly they mention the fact that many Remploy workers also vote Labour.

In my own opinion, the GMB are deffinately biting the hand that feeds them. With the "morals" of the current Labour cabinet, I would say the future for Remploy is unfortunately bleak. It is obvious that the message to Purnell is "Give us what we want, or we will hit you where it hurts". And the GMB Union want to strike Purnell by taking a slice of his votes away. It will be interesting to see if Purnell resorts to Thatcherite methods to curb the unions.

To my knowledge, there are four Tameside Labour councillors who have publiclly said they are members of the GMB Union. They are:

*Councillor John Taylor, Dukinfield.
*Councillor Andrew Doubleday, Denton South.
*Councillor Susan Quinn, Droylsden East.
*Councillor Kevin Welsh, Stalybridge North.

I started the article at roughly 9 PM. I thought it would be unfair to ring the councillors at this time to ask for their stance on the matter. I have emailed the above councillors and I will be ringing everyone of them to get an answer. I shall also ring Purnell's office for an official statement.

You can view more on the GMB Remploy Campaign on: http://www.gmbremployworkers.info/

Thanks to John Cooke, Chair of UKIP Tameside for the information.