VESTAS WORKERS LAUNCH NEW FACTORY

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: july/august 2010 :: RMTnews 6 ONE YEAR ON: Protesters celebrate a victory at the Vestas eviction court hearing during the occupation at the wind turbine plant, Isle of Wight a year ago. Copyright © Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk One year after workers occupied the Vestas wind turbines factory on the Isle of Wight, a new organisation, Sureblades, has risen from the ashes and is due to begin production of blades next month just yards from the closed factory. Sureblades has been driven by Sean McDonagh, an RMT member and one of the sacked Vestas workers involved in the occupation against the company shutting down where he ran operations from outside the gates. With the assistance of RMT officials, Sean and his colleagues met with government officials and development agencies to put together the Sureblades business plan in tandem with Keith Housell who already installs turbines across the south. After the occupation ended Sean travelled to Dorset every week to meet Keith to start up the company. Sean said that Sureblades aims to begin the manufacture of micro-turbine blades in Newport by late September and the company expects to have capacity to mould blades up to 12 metres long. “We will be using cutting edge technology which will mean that the blades are 100 per cent recyclable unlike conventional blades which have to be burnt or dumped in landfill,” he said. This imaginative new project has fatally undermined the argument put forward by the company at the time of closure that there was no market for UK manufactured turbine blades. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the union was right behind the concept. “These workers have shown that it is far too easy for companies in the UK to soak up government grants and then just cut and run when it suits them without any meaningful consultation, never mind a ballot of the workforce. "We are also very pleased that the planned new operation will be 100 per cent RMT and that officials of this trade union have helped open the doors and make the contacts which have turned this project into a reality. “But the real credit lies with the determination and inspirational solidarity of the workers who refused to accept that they were beaten,” Bob said. VESTAS WORKERS LAUNCH NEW FACTORY RMT members launch new, unionised factory one year after Vestas wind turbine occupation