Paralympics and Remploy closurers: Double standards & hypocrisy [Plus benefit cuts ATOS etc]

 

Press release: Press release: Press release: Immediate:

Forward by Jerry Hicks Grass Roots Left chair: Please find a press release from my good friend and great socialist Ged Dempsey.

 

Sir/Madam,

With the Paralympics upon us.....

I agreed with much of Denis McShane MP statement regarding the Government stripping away sickness and disability benefits. He was absolutely spot on.

Now after, the Con Dem coalition government announced callous plans to close 36 of the 54 remaining Remploy sites with compulsory redundancies for 1,752 people.

This decision came just days after the government passed the welfare bill, which is supposed to be to help people in to work?

Instead of a commitment to help the most vulnerable people in society, the government is hell-bent on making life much worse for them.

Remploy provides real jobs for many hundreds of disabled workers, giving them the confidence and dignity to be active and contributing citizens. Closing the factories will cause real hardship and push many to the back of the dole queue despite the hollow and weasel words of DWP Minister, Duncan Smith and his rich cronies in the Tory Cabinet of millionaires.

Now they are threatening the pensions of the Remploy workers.

The vile treatment of Remploy workers has been a disgrace and the politicians should hang their heads in shame.

Successive Governments have attacked these vulnerable workers whittling the plants down over the years - but too many politicians sat on their hands and were silent. Failing to stand up for those with little or no voice!

We also demanded an end to the grubby, incompetent and self interest of the directors/management; and a drive for real commitment to getting more public procurement contracts from Government and local authorities.

All to no avail.

 
This is at a time, when seriously injured service men and women continue to flood back to the UK from their time in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Only to find these fine establishments shut.

The solidarity and comradeship of Remploy workers has been a lesson and inspiration for all, in standing up and fighting for their basic rights.

However, the Government and Media friends will attempt to airbrush the Dispute from their story.

The next step, should now be for our Remploy Workers to use the Paralympic Games as a further way to build their public profile and focus public attention on their plight, stepping up their just fight and to name and shame those responsible for the decision to deny them employment.

We judge Governments and society by how well it treats its weak & vulnerable.

Ends:

Ged Dempsey, Printworker, Rotherham; Unite the Union member.