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Jobs saved as joinery transfer is abandoned
PLANS to move skilled jobs from Islington to Essex have been thwarted following a 10-month campaign.
Last year Islington Council approved proposals to shut a joinery workshop in Vale Royal, King’s Cross, and transfer six jobs to Harlow. Kier Islington – a collaboration between Islington Council and Kier UK – uses the workshop to make doors for council properties.
Construction union UCATT and Islington Labour opposed the plans, claiming the closure could delay emergency repairs and cut high-skilled jobs and apprenticeships.
This week Kier Islington said the joinery will instead be moved only a short distance to Brewery Road.
Jerry Swain, regional secretary for UCATT’s London and south-east region, said: “I am pleased Kier Islington has listened to reason. This eminently sensible decision will preserve jobs and ensure residents receive the best possible service.”
The joinery workshop provides doors, windows and stairways for council properties across Islington. It also supplies an emergency repair service.
Labour councillor Paul Convery said: “It’s a victory for common sense and the result of considerable lobbying and pressure.
“What Kier had proposed to do made no sense for Islington, depriving us of valuable apprenticeships which are paid for by rents from Islington tenants.”
He added: “Kier know that the renewal of the repairs contract is coming up. It was pretty duff politics to announce the closure of the joinery and they may be trying to claw back a bit of favour.
“My hope is that Kier is serious and that this isn’t a cosmetic gesture to keep in the borough’s good books.”
A Kier Islington spokesman said: “Kier Islington will be leaving its Vale Royal location but we have reconsidered the whereabouts of our new location, which will now be in Brewery Road within the borough of Islington.” |
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