2 responses to “Solidarity protest at Vestas UK HQ in Warrington”

1. 

   Liam

   July 25, 2009 at 11:32 am

   An account of Friday’s Vesta demo is below

   Report from Vestas: Save or Planet! Save our Jobs!

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2. 

   prianikoff

   July 25, 2009 at 12:10 pm

   One issue that Ed Milliband needs to be challenged over is why the Government did not foresee the closure of Vestas IOW and do something about it before now.

   As he says in his Guardian reply to Seamus Milne:

   “The factory makes onshore wind turbine blades, not for Britain and Europe but a different-sized turbine designed for the United States.
   Currently, its turbines are shipped to the US, and it has now opened a US facility to serve that market.”

   http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/jul/23/ed-miliband-vestas-wind-power

   He is almost certainly referring to the new Vestas plant in Windsor Colorado, opened in March 2008.
   It’s a 400,000 sq ft factory, which will create about 650 new local jobs.

   At the opening ceremony Jens Søby, President of Vestas Americas said:
   “With the Windsor factory, Vestas is further establishing its presence in the North American market place.
   Not only are we now able to manufacture the blades nearer to where the wind turbines are installed, but we are also sending a clear and strong message to politicians that wind power is a significant driver for sustainable economic development,”

   Such developments don’t happen overnight. Vestas first announced plans to establish a manufacturing facility in the USA in November 2006 and broke ground on the blade factory in June 2007. In November 2007, the company announced that is was expanding the production capacity at the blade factory, increasing the annual output from 1,200 to 1,800 blades.

   (From Vestas Americas Press Release. Portland, 6 March 2008)

   Furthermore, Vestas are responding to a favourable environment for wind turbines created by President Obama’s Economic Stimulus Package.

   “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1), signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009, extended the production tax credits (PTC) and investment tax credits (ITC), which have been critical to the growth of the renewable energy sector, and added a new a new incentive, Treasury grants taken in lieu of tax credits, designed to promote the growth of renewables despite the economic downturn. Companies that generate wind, solar, geothermal, and “closed-loop” bioenergy (using dedicated energy crops) are eligible for the PTC which provides a 2.1-cent per kilowatt-hour (kWh) benefit for the first ten years of a renewable energy facility’s operation.”

   http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/solutions/big_picture_solutions/production-tax-credit-for.html

   It’s a completely ridiculous situation that the government didn’t foresee what Vestas was going to do on the IOW, allowed 650 jobs to be sold down the Solent and did absolutely nothing to negotiate alternatives with the company beforehand.

   Relaxing planning laws for onshore wind projects next year are no substitute for immediate action to save jobs now.
   Milliband has to take immediate action to stop the closure of the plant, stop the injunction against the workers being granted in the courts and stop the company wrecking the plant and existing stock.

   If the company fails to cooperate the plant and their UK assets should be nationalised with minimum compensation.

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