Vestas Blade Blockade Steps Up The Pressure By Setting Up A Tripod at Sunrise

On the morn­ing of Thurs­day 10 Sep­tem­ber a tri­pod has now suc­cess­ful­ly been erect­ed at the marine gate pre­vent­ing blades from leav­ing the fac­to­ry. A work­er from the orig­i­nal occu­pa­tion is cur­rent­ly stand­ing at the top of the tri­pod as the block­ade pre­pares for an increase in activ­i­ty on both sides.

Vestas tripodOn the morn­ing of Thurs­day 10 Sep­tem­ber a tri­pod has now suc­cess­ful­ly been erect­ed at the marine gate pre­vent­ing blades from leav­ing the fac­to­ry. A work­er from the orig­i­nal occu­pa­tion is cur­rent­ly stand­ing at the top of the tri­pod as the block­ade pre­pares for an increase in activ­i­ty on both sides.

10th Sep­tem­ber 2009, 7am

After more than a week of blockad­ing the Ves­tas fac­to­ry in New­port, Isle Of Wight, a tri­pod has now been erect­ed at the marine gate pre­vent­ing blades from leav­ing the fac­to­ry. A work­er from the orig­i­nal occu­pa­tion is stand­ing on top of the tri­pod enjoy­ing a stun­ning view of sun­rise over the Riv­er Med­i­na.

This inspi­ra­tional addi­tion to the block­ade fol­lowed a day of police intim­i­da­tion that includ­ed one arrest and one per­son being banned from the site after receiv­ing a dis­per­sal order. Block­aders have also had to deal with the con­fis­ca­tion of one tri­pod before it had been erect­ed and the dis­man­tling of one oth­er block­ade. Work­ers and sup­port­ers worked togeth­er through­out the night to build the replace­ment tri­pod and car­ry it to the site as the sun rose. Tri­pod work­shops have been held through­out the week as cli­mate activists share skills with Ves­tas Work­ers. Oth­er skill­shares have includ­ed 12 volt solar instal­la­tions to pow­er the camp’s office in a car­a­van.

This action comes one week before a nation­al day of action to fur­ther high­light the plight of the 600 work­ers made redun­dant by this multi­na­tion­al com­pa­ny.

“We the work­ers see it as our duty to stop our blades from leav­ing as part of the cam­paign to nation­al­ize the fac­to­ry. Ves­tas have told us that there is no demand for our prod­ucts but are still unwill­ing to sell the site to oth­er inter­est­ed par­ties. It is clear the gov­ern­ment must act on such an impor­tant issue as renew­able ener­gy pro­duc­tion. They should not let our future be dic­tat­ed sole­ly by prof­it.’’

‘’We are call­ing on the gov­ern­ment to invest in green jobs on the Isle of Wight and for Ves­tas to rein­state the eleven sacked work­ers who occu­pied the fac­to­ry.’’

The work­ers and their sup­port­ers call on oth­ers to come and join them on the block­ades over the com­ing days as a mat­ter of urgency and to show sup­port on the Nation­al Day of Action on 17th Sep­tem­ber.

PLEASE GET IN TOUCH FOR PHOTOS AND INTERVIEWS

Tele­phone num­ber for tri­pod inter­views with Ves­tas work­er: 07875 098960 or 07935 868009

Web­site: Savevestas.wordpress.com

Email: savevestas@gmail.com