Vestas

Vestas factory occupation, 2009. Read our pamphlet here.

Warrington Wolves – kick out Vestas!

Around 12 activists from the Climate Camp headed to Wembley Stadium on 29 August. The Warrington Wolves were in the Rugby League Challenge Cup final against Huddersfield Giants. The Wolves are currently sponsored by Vestas, and play in strip with a Vestas logo. Hopefully not for much longer. Together with activists from Brent Trades Council, we leafletted 1000s of fans encouraging them to raise the chant “Vestas Out! Workers In!”. We received a lot of support and raised a considerable amount of money for the campaign. One fan said “Warrington’s always been a working-class town, we support you...

Vestas workers need support in the Isle of Wight this week

Our best information is that Vestas may try to ship out the wind-turbine blades left in their factories in the Isle of Wight soon, probably this week (31 Aug - 4 Sep). Protest against the movement of those blades, and of the moulds which Vestas also wants to move, is the chief leverage that the workers have with Vestas. Around 11 blades, worth about three quarters of a million pounds, were unfinished on 20 July when workers occupied the St Cross factory, to resist closure, and bosses sent home workers from the Venture Quays for fear that factory would be occupied too. Now - according to our...

The Vestas workers' struggle

For a full list of all stories on this website about Vestas, click here . Key articles below: What you can do - practical solidarity The story so far - timeline 28 April to 18 August Why wind turbine production should be publicly owned - Government minister Joan Ruddock challenged face-to-face on her "principles" Workers and supporters speak out - interviews on 14 and 15 August Organise, debate, unite in action: Building the broader campaign - discussion of the contribution of the activists from the mainland who rallied to the picket lines (20 August) An activist's diary: how the campaign...

Vestas - Direct action will be needed, we are asking for help with that - Mark Smith

Direct action will be needed. We are asking for help with that Mark Smith, one of the Vestas occupiers, spoke at a Workers’ Liberty meeting in London on Tuesday 25th August. For a full list of all stories on this website about Vestas, click here . Key stories: What you can do - practical solidarity The story so far - timeline 28 April to 18 August Why wind turbine production should be publicly owned - Government minister Joean Ruddock challenged face-to-face on her "principles" Workers and supporters speak out - interviews on 14 and 15 August Organise, debate, unite in action: Building the...

Vestas bosses involved in Academy bid on Isle of Wight

Another front in the Vestas jobs battle has been opened by the involvement of Vestas Technology in a plan to transform almost all the Isle of Wight's schools into Academies (privatised schools receiving public money but run by their business sponsors). In a letter endorsing the Academies bid, Vestas Technology boss Rob Sauven says: "(We are) committed to helping raise educational standards on the Island and to supporting sustainable schools. We would in particular like to encourage the education curriculum to further students' understanding of the planet from the sustainability perspective and...

Support Vestas workers!

Support the Vestas workers
Their cause is just and right
It’s more than just wind power
On the Isle of Wight

It’s not only job losses
Though that is so unfair
It’s all about the working class
And showing that we care

You fat cats who are in power
You’re really a disgrace
You’re thinking about your...

Vestas bosses seek to ship blades

The wind-turbine-making multinational Vestas, which currently faces a fight by workers in its blade factories in the Isle of Wight (Britain's only wind-turbine-blade factories) against moves to shut those factories, has started rapidly shipping blades from stock in Southampton to the USA. Two ships carrying 90 blades each have sailed from Southampton this week (17-21 August), and a third is currently being loaded with 109 blades. According to the Vestas workers' contacts in Southampton docks, another two sailings are scheduled soon. Around 11 blades - worth over three quarters of a million...

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...

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