DPAC: Sign Up to Support the Remploy Workers + The Big 6 Energy Bash!

Sign Up to Support the Remploy Workers Posted: 30 Apr 2012 03:33 PM PDT Please find below a letter written by Inclusion London, DPAC and allies to publically state our support for the Remploy workers in their opposition to the government’s decision to make them unemployed. If you would like to add your name or the name of your organisation to the letter please reply to ellenrclifford@btinternet.com. 30 April 2012 We believe the government’s decision to make 1,518 disabled workers unemployed by August, and a further 1,282 unemployed next year, by closing the Remploy factories is wrong. We do not believe these job losses constitute a victory for inclusion in the workplace. We have fought long and hard for an inclusive society where disabled people have the same employment chances, choices, and opportunities as everyone else. Our goal and demand for inclusive employment must not be used to justify job cuts that will push these workers into poverty, exclusion, and isolation. This decision will effectively put these disabled workers on the scrapheap at a time of recession when there is little to no hope of finding alternative employment, when eligibility for benefits is being slashed, and when support services for disabled people are being destroyed. Of the Remploy workers made redundant through the first round of factory closures in 2008 only 6% went on to find alternative employment. Disabled people face systemic discrimination in the workplace even when the economy is at its strongest. In the current recession in areas where Remploy factories are located there are now on average 30 to 40 people chasing every job. The stark reality is that these disabled workers currently have little chance of finding alternative work, at a time when we are hearing about increasing numbers of disabled people who are taking their own lives in despair after loss of benefits. The government argues that the factories are inefficient and unsustainable. They fail to mention the top-heavy non-disabled Remploy board and senior management strata; or the £1.8 million handed out in bonuses to Remploy bosses last year which could have been reinvested in the business. Remploy workers have been let down by non-disabled management who have run down their factories to ease the way for the closures. The government says it is committed to inclusion and equality for disabled people but the facts suggest otherwise.  Its disregard for inclusion is evident from its education policy which promotes a return to segregated education. Its welfare policy represents an unprecedented and savage attack on disability equality that will make it more difficult for disabled people to contribute to society. Disabled people are predicted to lose at the very least £9 billion in benefit entitlements over this Parliament. The Department for Work and Pensions’ own statistics put disability benefit fraud at no more than 0.5%. Proposals for reform of Disability Living Allowance will see 500,000 disabled people losing an essential benefit.  57% of disabled people in waged work on DLA have said in this situation they would be forced to give up work. Likewise, the Access to Work programme for support for disabled people in mainstream employment has been shown to more than cover its costs in revenue gained by tax, paid by disabled people now in work, who couldn’t remain in their jobs without this support. Yet the reality is that disabled workers’ jobs are being threatened by Access to Work support being cut and restricted. We reject the view that the way to respond to discrimination and exclusion in the workplace is through segregated employment, but we also reject the view that if we are against segregation we must go along with these job cuts and closures. We say no to any cuts that will push even more disabled people into poverty and isolation. Equality and inclusion for disabled people will be achieved through commitment and investment in tackling discrimination in the workplace, and wider society, and by investing in the provision of support that enables disabled people to gain choice, control, and independence in our lives. We the undersigned call for true equality and inclusion through: The development of a plan of investment and support to transform the Remploy factories into viable social enterprises controlled by disabled employees rather than their closure. Investment to increase and expand the Access to Work scheme so that it genuinely meets the needs of both disabled volunteers and workers. This extra funding must not come from the cuts to Remploy jobs. Investment in high-quality employment support services that enable disabled people to find employment and stay in employment—not the free labour workfare schemes currently provided. The right to inclusive education and accessible training and apprenticeships for all disabled people that will increase our chances of gaining and retaining meaningful employment. Commitment to tackle discrimination in the workplace through better understanding and enforcement of Equality Act duties. Yours Seán McGovern Inclusion London Disabled People Against Cuts Disability Action in Islington Changing Perspectives

The Big Six Energy Bash Posted: 30 Apr 2012 12:28 PM PDT On 3rd May, representatives of corporate energy and politics will be meeting in London at the UK energy summit. They want to keep on profiteering from fuel poverty, climate change, and trashing on the planet. We can’t let them. Come and take the power back.  THE PLAN Your day of action and your initial meeting place will be shaped by the bloc you join. Assemble at your bloc’s meeting point at 11am. Sign up to a bloc on the website to receive SMS text updates about action plans: Dirty Energy Bloc Dirty energy, dirty basslines and dirty business. Get down and dirty with us as we trash the planet in style! Meet outside City Thameslink station (Ludgate Hill exit) at 11am. Housing Bloc For warm homes and community control. Join this bloc if you want to turn up the heat in your homes and turn up the heat on the greedy energy companies… Meet outside Cannon Hill station at 11am. Robin Hood Bloc Join our merry band as we take the power from the Big Six Energy Barons and give it back to the people. Meet outside St Paul’s tube station, 11am. Fossil-Free Future Bloc A family friendly bloc for a future free from fossil fuels. As climate change threatens life on earth join this bloc if you think that the Big Six Dinosaurs are the ones that ought to face extinction. Come and demonstrate for fair democratic, fair and clean alternatives to the prehistoric energy companies fuels and thinking… Meet outside Tate Modern at 11am. ACCESS For any access needs send an SMS text or leave a message on 07432031610. BRING: Banners Food and drink Big chalks Music, samba rhythms, and sound systems Outdoor games Your mates THE REASONS: People not profit We want to end the stranglehold that the Big Six Energy Companies have on this country. Corporate control of energy is unfair, insane and short sighted and always puts profits ahead of the needs of people and our environment: the Big Six’s profiteering is killing thousands each winter through fuel poverty and millions across the world through climate change. Climate justice The Big Six energy companies, hand in hand with the government, and pushed by the mentality of growth capitalism, are destroying the climate and the lives of millions of people around the world. Climate justice means that those who have caused climate change should take responsibility for stopping it. Disabled people and Climate Change Disabled people are at particular risk of fuel poverty.   Government figures published last year showed that 2.75 million households living in fuel poverty were classed as “vulnerable” under a definition of vulnerable which could include an older person, a child or a disabled person within the household. Fuel poverty disproportionately affects disabled people: disabled people spend a greater proportion of their income on fuel because they are less likely to be employed and they also face additional costs of services, such as social care or mobility aids; through having less opportunities to be in employment disabled people spend a greater proportion of their time at home whilst cold environments can aggravate impairments, exacerbate respiratory problems and increase stress.  The double suicide in November last year of disabled couple Mark and Helen Mullins was linked to fuel poverty as without income for heating the pair were forced to live in just one room of their home under increasingly worsening conditions. Fuel poverty affects the poorest; often the poorer you are the higher the fuel prices people tend to be as a result of unscrupulous landlords hiking up meter prices for personal profit. Climate change can, and does, have a massive impact on disabled people across the world. The world’s poorest communities are most at risk from the violent weather conditions caused by climate change and disabled people make up a large percentage of those communities yet are least likely to have the resources to protect themselves. Problems experienced by disabled people on a day to day basis are magnified when there’s a natural disaster. Moreover natural disasters often leave more people disabled than they kill. www.climatejusticecollective.org/bigsixenergybash