Andy Yorke and Jeremy Dewar
A fight to save 600 jobs at a wind turbine plant threatened with closure exposes Labour’s green fakery. Andy Yorke and Jeremy Dewar back the workers’ demand for nationalisation
As we go to press, 25 workers are occupying the Vestas Wind Turbine factory on the Isle of Wight in order to prevent its imminent closure. Despite an attack by riot cops, an ongoing police siege and the company erecting a fence to deny the protesters food and water, the workers are on day six of their occupation. So far, five people have been arrested. Vestas has summarily dismissed the occupiers and is seeking a court injunction on 29 July to evict the workers.
The workers are calling on the Labour Government puts its own words about “green jobs” into action by nationalising the factory and save over 600 jobs. An ongoing mass picket on the outside and the occasional rush at the fence to reinforce the occupation and get vital supplies through has kept them upbeat and defiant. As one occupier told the press: “Support is just snowballing.”
This courageous act of defiance has brought the environment and labour movements together. The occupants have also won support on the Isle of Wight itself, where the job losses will have a devastating effect on the local economy. Many are camped outside in solidarity, while hundreds marched from Newport to the factory on 24 July.
Bob Crow, General Secretary of the RMT, has given the occupiers the union’s full support, paying their legal fees and even offering to airdrop food by helicopter. On visiting the island, Crow said:
“The government stands accused of sheer hypocrisy over their public announcements on climate change while our only wind turbine factory faces the axe. If the government can nationalise the banks at the drop of a hat then there is no reason whatsoever why they can’t nationalise Vestas.”
Labour’s response: hot air
Energy and Climate Change Minister Ed Miliband has been shamed into calling on everyone to “rally round to protect our wind turbine industry” – but refused to save the plant. The most Miliband has offered is to consider an application from Vestas for a research facility on the island that would possibly employ 150 workers, while easing planning permission for wind farm applications next year.
Only a week before the occupation kicked off, he was spinning Labour’s new White Paper as heralding a “green revolution”. As the occupying workers put it bluntly: “Only last week they said they would create 400,000 green jobs. How can the process start with 600 of us losing our jobs?”
Renewable energy sources – mainly wind power – are responsible for a mere six per cent of Britain’s energy. While the White Paper aims to increase this to 31 per cent by 2020, winning gushing support from some greens, Labour insists the private sector remains in control.
But, as Vestas has demonstrated, profit always comes first for the bosses. Already the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is demanding that the 2020 target of 31 per cent is cut to 25 per cent, while companies like E.On and EDF are actively backing “local” campaigns to object to new wind farms.
Green exploitation
But when it comes to exploiting their workers, old boys like E.On and EDF have nothing on the new wave of “green” entrepreneurs like Vestas. One worker described Vestas’ factory regime: “For so long, management kept us down; they’ve broken us and bullied us. People were too scared to stand up for themselves because they were worried they’d lose their jobs.”
Vestas made US$56 million profit in the first quarter of 2009, a massive 70 per cent increase on last year. Just like any other business, it won’t pay a penny to support workers and plants not spinning it money. Instead, after closing the Isle of Wight plants, Vestas plans to shift production to the US in order to boost profits further.
Miliband uncritically regurgitates the company’s wafer thin arguments that the blades are made to fit American wind turbines and that they are for onshore wind farms. So? If the workers were put in charge of the factory, they could easily recalibrate or retool the machines? The real reason Miliband won’t lift a finger is that he is in the pocket of the energy companies over planning permission and will not countenance nationalisation and workers’ control.
Solidarity needed
We need to build a massive solidarity campaign, demanding our trade unions support the occupation and force Miliband and Home Secretary Alan Johnson to call off the cops and nationalise the plant. RMT’s Crow should talk to his members on the ferries about solidarity strike action if the police attempt to break it up. As many as possible should visit the occupation and help defend it.
The Vestas workers are “broken” no more, but at the forefront of the fight against closures and climate change. They deserve all the support we can muster.
The Vestas workers have set up a blog with the latest news from the occupation. See it online at: http://savevestas.wordpress.com