Britain and climate change: Workers at wind turbine plant fight to keep jobs

By Martha Grevatt

Dec 19, 2009

While a group of workers held an 18-day occupation at Vestas wind turbine plant on Great Britain’s Isle of Wight in July, other Vestas workers and their supporters erected an encampment outside the plant. On Nov. 27 this tent community — which after four months included such comforts as a kitchen, showers, furniture and a solar-powered laptop/cell phone charging station! — was disbanded when Vestas obtained a court eviction order. Campers, however, were hardly demoralized.

“You might think,” wrote activist Vicki Morris on the Save Vestas Web page on Nov. 29 (savevestas.wordpress.com), “that the eviction ... would be a somber occasion,” but “it was anything but. We have a lot to celebrate, even if the owners have got a court order to have the camp removed. The camp has been a mainstay of the campaign by Vestas workers for their jobs, and a place where valuable lessons in campaigning, politics and camaraderie have been gained. ...

“2009 was a year of occupations of workplaces by workers, often protesting against job losses and the way they lost them, and of public amenities by those who rely on them. Not all of these happened in the UK, but all were on our radar throughout the year,” she noted in a separate posting on Nov. 29. Other occupations included Republic Windows and Doors that began in Chicago in 2008; Waterford Crystal in Ireland; Prisme packaging in Dundee, Scotland; Visteon car parts in Basildon, Belfast and Enfield, Ireland; Glasgow schools in Scotland; Lewisham Bridge School in southeast London; Ssangyong car factory in South Korea; and Thomas Cook in Dublin.

“The groups of people who took part in these occupations were clearly inspired by each other and these occupations could inspire more struggles. For many of us who took part in or supported these occupations, they are what give us hope that whatever transpires at [the international climate change conference in] Copenhagen we can meet the challenge of climate change. A common theme of these battles was a refusal to accept that the market should dictate what gets made, when and where, and whether or not people who have no other means to survive will have a job or not.

“With regard to the Vestas campaign, they remind us that the planet needs renewable energy now, not when ‘green energy’ companies such as Vestas can be satisfied that their share dividend will be high enough!”

The laid-off Vestas workers marched in a national climate change demonstration in London on Dec. 5. They continue to demand, among other issues, that the firings of 11 sit-downers be reversed and those workers be allowed to collect the severance benefits owed them.