Vestas

The Guardian newspaper sold a lot of copies on the back of the Vestas dispute, including reaping some sizeable advertising revenue from the Vestas company itself. They didn't print this letter below, from Workers' Climate Action and a number of the workers, some of whom had been involved in the occupation itself. Perhaps if we had some more advertising spend... Dear Editor, Further to your report (“Vestas factory closes despite campaign”), and in spite of the redundancies announced at Vestas, Isle of Wight yesterday, the campaign to save the only major wind turbine blade manufacturer in the UK...

The Weekly Worker , published by the so-called "Communist Party of Great Britain" group, generally focuses its coverage obsessively on the activities of the far left. That fact is well known, and proudly defended by the CPGB. When the Weekly Worker does report on events in the class struggle, it is almost always through the lens of the left's involvement, or at least heavily peppered with references to the left. The Weekly Worker 's reports on the Vestas struggle ( here and here ) therefore make interesting reading. Even if one ignores the various minor semi-errors, the reports come across as...

Workers at the Vestas wind turbine blade factories on the Isle of Wight have today (12 August) received letters saying that their employment is terminated as from 12 August, and promising them final payments (the remaining wages, redundancy pay, etc.) "within 21 days", i.e. by 2 September. The redundancies were first scheduled for 31 July. Then Vestas bosses rescheduled them for "in the week beginning Monday 10 August". Then, surprisingly, they sent out another later saying that the redundancy date was not yet set, suggesting a further postponement. Then today's letters. The letters put the...

Vestas workers have scheduled a second national day of solidarity action for 9 September, to follow up from the first on 12 August. The longer lead time gives us time to work to get trade unions, Trades Councils, campaigning organisations, local Labour Parties, etc. to vote support for the day of action and get together to organise activities. The workers hope to get local solidarity groups organised in the different towns of the Isle of Wight tomorrow, 12 August. In the run-up to 9 September, we should aim to get solidarity groups set up in every city in the country.

Bosses at the Vestas wind turbine blade factories in the Isle of Wight have sent out letters to workers saying that the compulsory redundancies there are delayed indefinitely. The redundancies were originally set to take effect, and final "clean-up" operations in the factories to start, from 31 July. During the workers' occupation of the St Cross factory, Vestas sent out letters saying that the process was delayed and they now "hoped" to complete it "in the week beginning Monday 10 August". Vestas have now completed the required third individual interview about redundancy with all the workers...

About 150 people, about half Vestas workers, and about half either supporters from the local community or volunteers from the mainland who have come to camp at the factory entrance, attended a meeting on Sunday 9 August to discuss the future direction of the dispute now that the workers occupying the Vestas St Cross factory have bene forced to leave. Occupier Mark Smith, opening the meeting, stressed the priority of stepping up the picket at the St Cross plant and extending it towards a blockade of both Vestas factories (and maybe other Vestas sites) on the island. He also emphasised the...

Workers' Climate Action has issued the following press release: The climate change minister, Joan Ruddock, yesterday refused to take any further action to prevent the closure of the Vestas wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight, where workers are staging a picket and regular protests to protect their jobs. Ruddock informed activists and constituents at a surgery in her constituency on Friday (August 7th) that the government had met with Vestas workers along with the RMT union and the TUC the day before, but said that Vestas had refused financial incentives to carry on production in the UK...

"To face reality squarely; not to seek the line of least resistance; to call things by their right names; to speak the truth to the masses, no matter how bitter it may be; not to fear obstacles; to be true in little things as in big ones; to base one's program on the logic of the class struggle; to be bold when the hour for action arrives-these are the rules of the Fourth International." Leon Trotsky, 1938 The SWP leadership has long had a policy of "creating facts". This policy is supposed to be about a unity between theory and practice. However, it also serves to justify a bit of sectarian...

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The RMT union has issued a press release about the meeting on Vestas with Government minister Joan Ruddock on Thursday 6 August. RMT officials Bob Crow and John Leach, along with representatives of the Vestas workforce, met with energy minister Joan Ruddock yesterday to discuss the future of the factory. During the meeting it emerged that the government had offered a series of rescue options to the company but each one had been rejected. Bailiffs' notices were served yesterday on the remaining six men in occupation and moves are expected by noon today by the company to retake possession of the...