Workers, environmentalists protest to save green energy plant

24th July: Protests are planned around the UK in coming days, opposing the closure of Britain's largest manufacturer of wind turbines.

Vestas UK, the subsidiary of a Danish company which is the world's leading turbine manufacturer, employs over 600 people at its plant on the Isle of Wight in Southern England, which makes turbines principally for the US market.

Plans to close the site were made public in spring 2009, after Vestas moved its US production to the other side of the Atlantic. But, argue campaigners, the plant should be kept open and used to produce wind generation equipment for the British and European markets.

With recent government commitments to create 400,000 'green jobs' in Britain by 2015 and the placing of wind energy at the centre of the Labour administration's Renewable Energy white paper, Gayle O'Donovan, secretary of Manchester Green Party, called the plant's closure 'counter-productive.”

Ms O'Donovan was one of a number of environmental and trade union campaigners urging supporters of the plant's future to join them at demonstrations in Doncaster, Yorkshire on Friday 24th July and Warrington, in the North-West of England and the site of Vestas' UK headquarters, on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th.

On the Isle of Wight, workers at the Vestas plant have staged an occupation of their workplace, calling on the trade union and environmental movements to support their jobs. Warnings about Vestas' financial stability and problems in the British planning system, which makes building new land-based windfarms difficult, have been blamed for the company's decision to close the operations. But it has come under fire from supporters of the protesting workers for threatening to fire any staff involved – which would mean they forfeited redundancy pay if the closure goes ahead at the end of the month – and for calling in local police to prevent people and food from entering the protest area. Campaigners associated with the UK's series of Climate Camps have also set up a solidarity camp outside the Vestas plant.

Bob Crow, leader of the RMT union, accused the government of 'sheer hypocrisy' in its unwillingness to support the plant financially, after it has been willing to put billions into propping up banks during the credit crunch and car manufacturers in the ensuing recession. The RMT confirmed this week that it will be providing legal back-up to the plant's staff, and also suggested that it could resort to using a helicopter to fly in food to the workers in occupation at the plant, to prevent them being “starved into submission.” Gayle O'Donovan also called on Labour to “step in to save the infrastructure we are really going to need to ensure our climate security.”

Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Climate Change and Energy, claimed that the issue for Vestas was not one of government subsidies, but the need to be sure of future orders if the factory was refitted to manufacture for the European market. Ditlev Engel, chief executive of Vestas, has described Britain as "probably one of the most difficult places in the world to get [planning] permission". But, campaigners stressed, this situation could be improved by a change in planning regulations and more government support for onshore wind farms.

Sarah Irving is a freelance writer specialising in environmental and social issues and the Middle East.