‘FANTASTIC,’ was how Vestas factory occupier Chris Ash responded to the decision at Newport Magistrates Court yesterday to adjourn the wind turbine company’s attempt to evict him and his colleagues.
Earlier, over 100 Vestas workers, their families, and supporters defiantly marched to the court on the Isle of Wight, shouting ‘Save our Island, save our jobs!’ and ‘What do we want? Nationalisation! When do we want it? Now!’
Outside the magistrates court, the marchers were greeted with cheers and applause by nearly 100 more supporters who roared their approval at the decision to adjourn the eviction order until August 4 (next week).
Speaking from inside the occupied Vestas factory, 23-year-old Ash told News Line: ‘Today’s decision has lifted everyone’s spirit, both inside and outside Vestas.
‘We feel we are winning now. Without a shadow of a doubt, this has strengthened us.’
However, Ash added: ‘Even though the bailiffs might come in to get us out, all of this hasn’t been for nothing, because we have put it out in the public eye and now everyone knows how Vestas treat their workers. Hopefully, the government will nationalise the company.
‘Even if we are forced out of the building, we will still be campaigning outside the gates every single day.’
He also commented on the action of the company, which sent in pizzas, with dismissal notices underneath them.
He said: ‘It wasn’t devastating as such, because we knew it was going to happen – it’s just the way they did it.
‘The management might think they have one over on us, but we feel that, now we’ve been sacked, we have got nothing to lose.
‘We are more determined than ever to fight this.’
Speaking outside the magistrates court after the adjournment, RMT regional organiser, Pete Gale, said:
‘It’s a victory.
‘It just exposes Vestas for the way they’re treating their staff, appallingly.
‘They couldn’t even get their act together in court. It sums up how they’ve dealt with this dispute up to now.’
Shannon Smy, from the Musicians Union, said: ‘This is partly a victory; obviously the victory will be when they get their jobs back.
‘The adjournment gives us more time to rally support and for more people to get involved.’
Many speakers addressed a rally before the court’s verdict, including local representatives from Unison, the PCS, UCU and CWU trade unions.
Christine Wilde, the Unison Isle of Wight Health Branch chair, said: ‘It’s ridiculous for a profitable company to consider closing down, given the job situation on the island. It has one of the highest unemployment levels in the country. We are desperate for jobs on the island.
‘Our branch fully supports the Vestas workers and will do anything we can do.’
She added: ‘No one talked to them and occupation was the only alternative.’
Her colleague, Andy Martindale, the Unison branch secretary, said the local NHS Trust was also threatening to cut jobs at the hospital ‘if savings aren’t made’.
Ruth Harris, Portsmouth CWU branch secretary, said it was an outrage that job cuts and attacks on the public services were taking place under a Labour government.
Referring to the postal workers dispute, she said: ‘The time has come for a national dispute and for forming a public sector alliance.’
The RMT, which has recruited a number of Vestas workers, said that the deferral of the court hearing exposes the weakness of the company’s case.
RMT have also now had contact from the office of Climate Secretary Ed Miliband and are hopeful for urgent talks to broker a solution which will stop the closure of the UK’s only wind turbine factory.
Bob Crow, RMT general secretary said: ‘Yesterday, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson talked about “our low-carbon industrial future”. Today, the government have the chance to walk the talk, to step in and nationalise Vestas and save green jobs at the UK’s only wind turbine factory.’
