WORKERS at a York factory that provides jobs for disabled people have manned the barricades to prevent machines being removed as it faces closure.

The Remploy site, in Redeness Street, off Layerthorpe, is set to be axed at the end of March, with the loss of 51 jobs, following a Government decision that the money spent on funding it could be better spent elsewhere.

But unions and workers have vowed to try and keep it open - and yesterday they stood in the way of vans which arrived to take sewing machines and other equipment away from the factory.

The site's gates were locked and the removal team was twice forced to turn back in the latest round of protest action against the planned closures.

Remploy's York workforce will be balloted on industrial action next week.

The protesters still believe the site can be saved, claiming more should have been and still could be done to secure public procurement of vital contract work.

"Preventing these machines being removed to other factories might be a token gesture, but it shows we are prepared to fight on a moral issue," said John Wilson, the GMB union's assistant shop steward at the factory.

"We can't believe other sites are so desperate for them and it does nothing for the morale of York workers to see them taken away.

"It's another example of what we see as bully-boy tactics from Remploy."

York GMB organiser John Kirk said: "If the machines are removed, it may remove any chance of a buyer purchasing the site.

"These subversive tactics are absolutely appalling and what you would expect from a terrorist, not an employer.

"Remploy workers are being treated with no dignity or respect whatsoever."

Caroline Johnson, 60, of Dodsworth Avenue, who has worked at Remploy for 11 years, joined the blockade and said: "We're not just doing this for ourselves - we're doing it for other disabled people who will struggle to find another job.

"We are like a family, a community, and that is being torn apart for no good reason.

"But we'll believe there is a chance to keep the factory open right until the last minute."

A Remploy spokeswoman said: "The machinery being moved from York is needed at another Remploy factory.

"The move is part of normal business plan- ning and delay in moving this machinery will incur additional cost for the company.

"There will still be equipment and machinery in the York factory which will stay there until March."

She said Remploy was holding individual talks with employees to find them other jobs - with 100 vacancies available within 12 miles of the York factory - or offer them voluntary redundancy, but no compulsory redundancies would be made.