UNION leaders are warning of a strike at six North-East factories employing disabled people after a Government leak confirmed they could be among 30 earmarked for closure.

Anne McGuire, Minister for the Disabled, is expected to announce tomorrow that almost a third of the 83 Remploy factories across the country could shut down.

The company, founded in 1945 to help disabled servicemen find jobs, employs 5,000 people nationally.

There are nine factories in the region at Ashington, Newcastle, Gateshead, Jarrow, Sunderland, Spennymoor, Hartlepool, Stockton and York, employing 500 people. It is not known which sites would close if cuts are made.

A briefing for Mrs McGuire, leaked to the GMB union, states: "Remploy has proposed a number of factory closures and mergers. The company feels these proposals will give the best chance of the remaining factory network being sustainable in the future."

The briefing says Government funding of £111m a year for five years will not change.

It adds that there will be no compulsory redundancies, and states "unprecedented" support will be available for staff.

Six disability charities - including Mencap and Mind - have supported the closures, arguing disabled people should work in a more "inclusive" environment.

But Phil Davies, GMB's national manager, said: "It is clear there is now a co-ordinated push by the management, backed by politicians, to shut up to 30 Remploy factories in the face of a campaign by the trade unions to secure a future for all of them.

''A confrontation now seems inevitable and we are warning that the outcome will be a national strike across all 83 Remploy factories.

''It is not too late for the Government and management to back down and implement the trade union's alternative plan."

The union's proposals would keep the factories open, while increasing the number of disabled people in mainstream employment.

In December last year, Remploy staff handed in a petition to 10 Downing Street, demanding the factories stayed open. It was signed by thousands of people from the North-East.

Remploy's chief executive, Bob Warner, argued last month there was an "acceptance" that disabled people prefer to work in mainstream employment alongside non-disabled people.