WORKERS at a York factory which employs disabled people are to be balloted on industrial action in a last-ditch attempt to prevent it closing.

The axe is set to fall on the Remploy site in Redeness Street in around two months, taking 51 jobs with it, after the Government claimed keeping it and 27 other sites did not represent value for money.

But employees determined not to see it go without a fight will next week receive ballot papers asking them to vote on whether to take industrial action.

This could see them holding demonstrations at the site, with the ballot result expected in the first week of February.

Remploy says it will try to find other posts for workers who want to stay, but the GMB union says that, even if that happens, they will not be as skilled or well-paid as the jobs they currently have.

And they still believe the factory can be saved, claiming not enough was done to secure public procurement of contracts which they say could have staved off the closures.

"The ballot will ask workers whether they are prepared to take part in action up to and including strikes," said Remploy worker John Wilson, GMB's assistant shop steward at the York factory.

* For more details see The Press today.