Tilting at windmills?
(c) rasmithuk
Around 20 workers at Vestas, the world leader in wind turbine blade manufacture, have occupied the company’s UK factory on the Isle of Wight since last Monday. The factory is due to close on 31 July …
(c) rasmithuk
Around 20 workers at Vestas, the world leader in wind turbine blade manufacture, have occupied the company’s UK factory on the Isle of Wight since last Monday. The factory is due to close on 31 July with the loss of 600 jobs as the company aims to relocate overseas. Vestas cites a slowdown in demand, the weakness of the pound and the problem of nimbyism in Britain as reasons for the factory’s closure. Despite these problems Vestas recorded a 70 per cent rise in profits in the first quarter of 2009 compared with 2008.
Outside the factory members of the local community, co-workers and climate campaigners are supporting the occupying workers. Meanwhile, a security firm hired by Vestas has erected a fence around the property – it seems the plan is to weaken morale inside the factory and deprive the workers of food. Police forces at the site – acting without an injunction -are reported to have attempted to break-in to where the workers are barricaded. Despite intimidation and arrests the workers have held firm.
What is most pertinent in this dispute is the disjuncture between the government’s recent pledge to create ‘green jobs’ and their failure to act with real practical help for the workforce at Vestas. Nationalisation is an option, although the government does not necessarily have to go this far. Grants to Vestas or a government stake in the company could also be used to secure hundreds of jobs in an industry which Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has only recently announced should be at the forefront of a drive to refocus Britain’s energy around renewable sources. According to the Independent Vestas decision to close the factory came after a request for government help was not forthcoming.
The campaign to save Vestas is gathering pace and has brought together two sometimes antagonistic interest groups – green campaigners and trade unions. If green industries really do take off then this team could present a formidable challenge to government and big business. Media coverage of this story has also been quite good with the Independent running a front page story in its Thursday 23 July edition and a number of comment pieces in the Guardian and reporting in The Times. The ability of the workers to generate solidarity amongst the public, politicians, climate campaigners has also been quite incredible. The use of technology and new media has echoes of the oil refinery strikes which used text messages and the internet to ensure industry-wide walkouts and the effective protection of workers’ jobs. A website with updates and details of how to support the workers at Vestas has been set up. Messages of solidarity have come from as far afield as South Korea where workers are currently occupying the Ssangyong Motors factory in defence of their jobs.
The green arguments are compelling enough that it seems superfluous to mention the value of keeping 600 people off the dole and employed in an industry that is lauded by so many as the future for Britain. Here is the chance for a Labour government to demonstrate its commitment both to working people and to green energy solutions.
