Staff occupy Isle of Wight wind turbine plant in protest against closure

Matthew Weaver
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 July 2009 00.31 BST
Workers staged an occupation of one of Britain's only wind turbine factories last night to protest against the imminent closure of the plant and the loss of hundreds of jobs.
About 25 workers entered the administration block of the Vestas Wind Systems factory in Newport, Isle of Wight, at around 7.30pm and vowed to remain there until the government discusses their proposal to save it from closure by nationalising the plant.
In April the Danish firm announced that the factory, which employs 525 people, as well as another in Southampton, employing 100 people, would close because of a lack of demand.
Vestas, which is the world's biggest wind energy group and recently reported a quarterly sales rise of 59%, up to €1.1bn (£0.95bn), cited a slowdown in demand when it announced the closure of the factory. It blamed a number of factors including the weakness of the pound and "a lack of political initiatives".
Vestas chief executive Ditlev Engel said that building wind turbines in Britain was "extremely time-consuming and extremely complicated". He added: "In the UK nimbyism is a huge challenge."
A worker inside the factory, who gave his name only as Michael, hit out at what he claimed were double standards in the government's approach to low-carbon industries.
He said: "It's crazy for Ed Miliband [the environment secretary] to be making statement after statement about green energy and green jobs and at the same time this factory is being closed."
"It would be tiny step financially to keep this factory open, but it would be a huge statement about the government's commitment to the green economy. Just as they could not afford to let the banks fail, they can't afford to let this fail. It's about the history of humanity."
Several police officers gathered outside the factory last night but told the protesters they do not intend to force them out. "This is a peaceful protest," Michael said. "We got enough supplies to last a while ... as long as you like crisps."
A spokesman for the Campaign Against Climate Change pressure group said: "We give the workers our full support. The government should take over the plant and restart production and if there currently is not enough demand for wind turbines, then it should build more wind farms itself."
No one from Vestas management was available for comment last night.