Vestas

Vestas factory occupation, 2009. Read our pamphlet here.

Vestas: maintain and extend the pickets!

"Vestas, this is only the start, you will lose", read the sign which occupying workers put up at the wind turbine blade factory at Newport, Isle of Wight, before they were evicted at midday on Friday 7 August, on the 18th day of their occupation. Two workers abseiled down from the management offices on a rope, and one jumped down; three others came out with the bailiffs. (Others have come out individually, or in small groups, over the last two and a half weeks). A large crowd of workers and supporters greeted them, including some 25 who had responded to an emergency call from Workers' Climate...

Government meets Vestas workers - but makes no hard commitments

After two and a half weeks of saying that there was nothing to discuss, the Government finally agreed to meet the Vestas workers on Thursday 6 August. Mike Godley, an occupier who left the factory on Tuesday 4th and is now a RMT steward for the "outside" workers, reported back on the meeting at the 6pm rally at the factory entrance on 6 August. Mike Godley, with another steward, Sean McDonagh, had met Joan Ruddock, Minister of State in Ed Miliband's Department of Energy and Climate Change, together with an RMT representative and a Unite representative (why a Unite representative, was not...

Vestas eviction noon Friday 7 August at Vestas IoW: please mobilise against this now

Dear friend, an eviction notice has been served on the occupation at Vestas IoW. The eviction is due to take place tomorrow, Friday 7 August, at 12 noon. Please get to the Island if you can . The workers want support tomorrow. There is a minibus leaving London tonight. Email us if you want to be on it and we will forward your number to the driver. If anyone else can drive or offer transport, please let us know. We can post details on the blog or put you in touch with people seeking transport. If you can't go, please organise a protest in your town or join one of those already planned. Protests...

Tubeworker special: Defend Vestas Jobs

Click '2 attachments' / file names to download the special issue of Tubeworker about the Vestas struggle, produced jointly with Workers' Climate Action.

A call from the AWL to all socialists, trade unionists, and environmental activists

The picket outside the occupied Vestas wind turbine blade factory in Newport, Isle of Wight, now needs to be turned into a mass picket. That is how we should respond to the "possession order" granted to Vestas bosses in court today, Tuesday 4 August. With sufficient numbers on the factory entrances, it can become unfeasible for bailiffs to get into the factory and evict the occupiers. There are three entrances to the site. The front has been blocked off already by the police erecting fences. Another, the "marine gate", now has activists' tents pitched outside it, and is accessible on land only...

Vestas bosses win eviction order, but day of solidarity called for 12 August

Several hundred Vestas workers and supporters gathered outside Newport courthouse on Tuesday 4 August as Vestas bosses made their second attempt to get a possession order against the workers occupying their wind turbine blade factory at St Cross, Newport. That same morning, several activists had climbed to the roof of the smaller Vestas factory on the Isle of Wight, at East Cowes, to display a huge banner there reading: "Vestas workers' solidarity - In Occupation - Fight for green jobs". As Steve Stotesbury, spokesperson for the Vestas workers' RMT committee, said outside the courthouse when...

Union leaders call on Ed Miliband to save Vestas jobs

In a letter to the Guardian , sixteen union leaders have called on Energy Minister Ed Miliband to save the Vestas wind turbine blade factories in the Isle of Wight. Members in the big Unison, GMB, and Unite unions should call on their leaders to add their signatures. We are seeking the urgent intervention of environment secretary Ed Miliband to save the Vestas wind turbine factory (Police asked to ensure the Vestas protesters receive enough food, 1 August). We know he is committed to promoting green energy, but people will find it difficult to understand that just as the government has...

AWL update from Newport, IoW

On Sunday 2 August, AWL organised a second film showing in Newport, IoW, for Vestas workers and supporters. This time we showed Rocking the Foundations , a film about the "green bans" imposed by the New South Wales Builders Labourers Federation in the early 1970s. For a Workers' Liberty article about the "green bans", click here . Last Sunday it was With Babies and Banners , about the General Motors Flint (USA) factory occupation in 1936-7. Attendance was a bit down on 2 August, with five non-AWL people there in addition to the AWL members who are camping on the roundabout outside the occupied...

Workers' Climate Action blockade Ed Miliband’s offices in Vestas solidarity action

Ed Miliband’s London offices were blockaded this morning by a coalition of “red, green and black” activists in a demonstration of solidarity for the factory workers who have been occupying the Vestas wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight since 20 July. The occupation in Newport is protesting against the Vestas management’s decision to shut down the factory, cutting 600 jobs and representing a severe blow to the local community and to a green economy. The workers are currently entering their fifteenth day of occupation, calling for nationalisation and workers’ control of the factory. The...

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