Solidarity 157, 20 August 2009

Post: we need a workers’ plan!

After a series of local ballots and strikes over job cuts, the post and telecom union CWU is balloting all postal workers across Britain from 9 September. The CWU’s strike call comes in response to what CWU Deputy General Secretary Dave Ward calls an “incompetent management running [the postal service] into the ground.” Although the Government has retreated on part-privatisation of Royal Mail, an aggressive cuts programme continues. Mail centres are being shut. Delivery workers are being asked to work longer for less. The conflict is “unfinished business” following the deal struck to end the...

Working together gets things done

Tracey Yeates is a worker in the finishing shop at the Vestas Newport factory, and a member of the RMT workers’ committee The last three weeks have taught me that if people work together, we can get things done, and we can, as a group, make a change. Perhaps before I would have turned away. I think it’s changed me as well as my opinions. I’ve come to realise how much of a bad employer Vestas were. Before, I tended to believe what the management said and not what the workforce was saying. But now that is changed. What’s made the difference? I suppose at the start it was because you, the...

Workers' Climate Action at Climate Camp

On 26 August hundreds, more likely thousands, of activists will execute a mass land squat somewhere inside the M25 and set up this year’s Camp for Climate Action. There are four themes for the camp this year: • Education, through a programme of over 100 workshops; • Sustainable Living, demonstrated the physical infrastructure of the camp; • Direct Action, training for and executing the physical obstruction of the processes that drive climate change; • Movement Building. This year’s location was not chosen to target a specific industry or installation (as locations have been for the past three...

Why wind turbine production should be publicly owned

Joan Ruddock MP, Climate Change minister, agreed to meet supporters of the Save Vestas campaign during her constituency surgery in Deptford, south London, on 7 August, the same day that the last Vestas occupiers left the plant on the Isle of Wight. She was standing in for Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, who was away in Brazil lecturing them on their responsibilities as a developing nation to mitigate climate change — but that’s an aside. The previous day Ruddock had met two Vestas workers together with union officials from the RMT, Unite, and the TUC. Q: What has...

Vestas: the story so far....

28 April: After telling workers, in 2008, that they planned to re-fit the factories in 2009 to produce larger blades with a better production process, the Danish based multinational Vestas announces instead that it will close the Isle of Wight wind turbine blade factories, the only such factories in Britain.. 15 June: Workers’ Liberty activists arrive in the Isle of Wight to start leafleting and talking to workers about the Vestas factory closure and ways to resist it. 3 July: Workers’ Climate Action and Cowes Trades Council call a public meeting to discuss campaigning against the closure of...

Vestas: Organise, debate, unite in action: Building the broader campaign

Chairing a Vestas workers’ rally in Ryde, Isle of Wight, on 15 August, Mike Godley, one of the workers who occupied the Newport factory from 20 July until evicted on 7 August, read out web postings which attacked “outsiders” in the campaign. The postings claimed that socialist and other activists who have come to the Isle of Wight from the mainland had manipulated the workers. To great applause, Mike Godley refuted the attacks. The socialists and environmental activists have been welcome, he said, and they have provided valuable help to a struggle which continues to be the Vestas workers’ own...

Vestas: What you can do

• Set up a local Vestas workers' support group, involving trade unionists, environmental activists, and socialists. • Organise a visible demonstration of solidarity, especially on the next national day of action, 17 September. • Send a donation from your trade union or other organisation, or make a personal donation, with a message of support: cheques payable to Ryde and East Wight Trades Union Council, 22 Church Lane, Ryde, Isle of Wight, PO33 2NB. • Send a motion to your union leadership demanding they actively back the Vestas workers and their demands. This is particularly important in...

Workers’ Climate Action conference, 10 October

The Workers’ Climate Action network is meeting for its second conference on 10 October 2009 in London. Over the last year, we have been active in the environmental and labour movements advocating class struggle activism as the key battleground in the fight against ecological destruction. Our involvement has meant the Climate Camp has given its solidarity to the London Underground tubeworkers in their dispute over pay, conditions and jobs. Their solidarity in turn has raised the question of free (or very cheap) public transport as a necessary step towards an ecological future. We have spoken to...

17 September day of action

Vestas bosses and the Government continue to stall in face of the struggle by the Vestas wind turbine blade workers on the Isle of Wight against the closure of their factories. But the ripples of support for the workers continues to spread out. In mid-August, international messages of support have arrived from Chile and Australia. New local support groups are being set up. As labour movement meetings get back into gear after the July-August holiday period, the support can continue to grow. The next national day of solidarity, on 17 September, can be bigger than the last one on 12 August...

Help support our work around Vestas

In the last couple of months, the AWL along with many other activities, has played a crucial role in helping to spark and then supporting the Vestas workers’ struggle. That activity — travelling to the Isle of Wight, producing bulletins, leaflets, a paper to help spread the word — all costs a lot of money. The activity — and the cost! — will continue in the coming weeks and months. That is the sort of thing we do as an organisation. Such activities are among the reasons why you should join the AWL. But whether you're a member or not, why not help support us in our work around Vestas by making...

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