Supporters of Vestas workers break into factory to deliver food

Paul Lewis
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 30 July 2009 20.58 BST

Supporters of workers occupying the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight today broke into the premises to deliver food, accusing the company of trying to starve the men into submission.
The Danish-owned company said it would officially close the Newport factory, the only major producer of wind turbine blades in the UK, tomorrow. However, about 10 workers at the plant remain in a first-floor office space which they have occupied for 11 days in protest at the closure of the factory, which they say will result in about 625 job losses.
Vestas failed in a legal attempt to obtain a possession order from a local court to evict the workers on Wednesday, when a judge ruled it had failed to properly serve papers on the men. He adjourned the hearing until Tuesday.
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) has raised concerns over the welfare of the men, who have no access to showers or hot water.
The union is seeking legal advice on the obligations the company has to feed the workers, who are receiving a modest breakfast at 9am and a small meal – such as slice of pizza – at night. Occasionally, they have been given drinks.
"It cannot be right that the company are allowed to try and starve the workers at Vestas into submission," said the RMT general secretary, Bob Crow. "This looks to us like a gross infringement of their human rights."
One of the workers left the occupation yesterday, and was told by ambulance staff that his blood sugar levels were dangerously low. Luke Paxton, 20, said a police officer guided him to a waiting ambulance after he emerged from the plant looking "pale and shaky". He said he was advised to go to hospital after a blood test showed his sugar levels were lower than normal.
Vestas activists from the island, who are campaigning alongside environmental protesters at a campsite outside the factory gates, stormed through a security cordon yesterday to deliver food. Steve Milligan, from the Climate Camp protest group, said those outside had become "really frustrated and angry" at the lack of food and decided to enter by force.
A number were restrained by security, he said, but others managed to throw supplies in, including a kettle, rice, tins of tuna and pasta.
Until now, workers inside the factory have relied on additional supplies stuffed into tennis balls and thrown to them from a distance, meaning supplies have been limited to rolled up bags of instant soup, sweets and pound coins for use in a vending machine.
The tennis ball technique – also used to smuggle drugs into prisons – was used by the Guardian to get a USB memory stick into the factory. The workers uploaded video footage they shot of their occupation, giving an insight into their living conditions, and threw the ball back.
The footage, shot on Wednesday, shows the men lounging around on office desks and listening to music on the radio. They react jubilantly when they hear the news from court that enabled an extension of their occupation until next week.
One worker can be overheard saying: "Six days isn't it – something like that? We need to speak to Ian Woodland and they need to start getting us food in properly. They've said they can do it, so we need to get it done now. And maybe the RMT can start getting the food in and putting on the pressure."