At a time of high unemployment, they believe city businesses will not recruit staff who are missing limbs, or are blind, deaf or unable to speak.
They are facing redundancy because the UK Government is to cut funding to the Remploy company, meaning the axe is hanging over 36 of its 54 factories, putting 1752 workers – most with disabilities – at risk.
For staff at the Remploy factory in Springburn, the battle to save their jobs must be won – otherwise their future is grim.
Leading the fight to save the Edgefauld Road site is former soldier Phil Brannan, who served in war-torn Northern Ireland 40 years ago.
He is the factory's 60-year-old union convener and has spelt out the harsh realities facing the 46 staff. All but three have some form of disability.
Mr Brannan said: "Most of the workers know they will never ever get another job and will live the rest of their lives on benefits, despite the Government spin.
"The problem is employers will not employ people who have disabilities, which is why Remploy exists.
"We all welcome the chance of a job in mainstream employment, but right now there is a need for Remploy."
He believes the network of 54 sites have lacked serious investment to modernise production, with too much money spent on management rather than the production line.
Mr Brannan added: "Unfortunately, Remploy has 4000 workers supervised by more than 500 senior managers.
"At the moment, 368 qualify for a company car, while another 280 are paid car allowance. Not enough has been invested in the business."
The Springburn site manufactures specialist footwear for the disabled and is part of Remploy's healthcare division.
The Government says Springburn and 35 other plants are to shut because they are all losing money.
John Moist is the union official at GMB who represents Scotland's eight Remploy sites. He says the healthcare division is profitable and will be hived off to the private sector.
He also blames a lack of investment by successive governments in Remploy, which was set up to provide work for former servicemen who had returned from the First World War with wounds that left them disabled.
It is not just the Springburn factory that is under threat in west and central Scotland.
Also on the hit list is Remploy Motherwell. It is in the Netherton Industrial Estate in neighbouring Wishaw, Lanarkshire, where 20 disabled staff and another two workers provide storage and packaging facilities.
A decision has yet to be taken on the future of a site in Clyde Street, Clydebank, where 33 staff – 22 of them disabled – manufacture textiles.
Other factories to close in Scotland are in Aberdeen and Edinburgh.
The Government's move to cut the cash came after it accepted the recommendation in the Sayce Review.
This reported last June that future funding should be used to maximise the support for disabled people rather than subsidise organisations such as Remploy.
All 36 factories targeted for closure will have funding withdrawn at the end of the month and staff have been told they have only 90 days to save their jobs as part of a consultation process.
Workers are not expecting a reprieve. Unions predict this is the beginning of the end to the entire network of 54 sites.
The closure programme was announced by Maria Miller, the UK Government Minister For Disabled People.
She said: "The Government will reduce its current subsidy to Remploy from the beginning of the new financial year, so that we cease funding factories that make significant losses year after year and restrict funding to those that might have a prospect of a viable future without subsidy."
It is claimed the cost to the taxpayer to support each disabled Remploy worker is £25,000, while last year 2790 disabled people in Scotland were supported in employment through the Access To Work scheme.
In Glasgow last year, Employment Services said they found 534 jobs for disabled and disadvantaged people.
This compared to 255 disabled staff at Remploy sites north of the border.
But the closure decision has sparked anger among workers and the unions, as well as opposition politicians.
Willie Bain, Labour MP for Glasgow North East, said: "This is a cut too far from a Government that doesn't care. Given only 90 days notice and £2500 to help them get another job, the Government has left the Remploy workers of Springburn with a grim outlook."
Patricia Ferguson, Labour MSP for Maryhill and Springburn, denounced the decision as "callous and insensitive" in a motion lodged with the Scottish Parliament.
And Phil Davies, national secretary of the GMB union, labelled the planned closure as an attack on society's "most vulnerable members".
He said: "These factories have lacked support for years.
"They have never been properly loaded with enough work to make them economically viable.
"I never thought I would live to see the day that an organisation set up to provide sustainable employment for disabled people would be shut down.
"It is a disgrace that a number of large charities, set up to help disabled people and run by very well paid, able-bodied people, have misled the British public and provided the Government with the cover to undertake this act of sacking disabled workers. Shame on them."
The trade union movement has signalled a fightback, with Kevin Hepworth at Unite declaring: "GMB and the other trade unions in Remploy will not stand by and allow this attack to go unanswered.
"The next step is for a substantial period of consultation. Shop stewards from all the factories will be meeting on March 26 and 27 to set out a course of action."
For Phil Brannan and his workmates in Springburn it is seen as a last throw of the dice to remain in employment and to retain their dignity without having to live off state hand-outs.
Mr Brannan said: "UK Justice Secretary Ken Clarke is looking at how industry can generate more work for prisoners.
"It seems a disabled person has to be a prisoner if he hopes to land work. That for me sums up how politicians view the disabled."
gordon.thomson@ eveningtimes. co.uk
