Activists from Workers’ Climate Action and other groups will be gathering on the Isle of Wight at the Riverside Centre on the 3rd July to help build the campaign against the closure of the Vestas wind turbine factory.

Please note: This is a public meeting organised by the Cowes Trade Council and everyone is invited.

Support for this issue is of great importance as is participation in the national fight against climate change. As you may know, the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle is being shut down because it isn’t profitable for the company to stay in the UK during the recession.

This will mean job cuts of at least 500 and a devastating impact on the local community; but arguably of more significance even than this is the stupendous wrong-headedness of cutting down the sustainable energy sector in the face of imminent climate chaos.

Save jobs, Save the Planet, SAVE VESTAS at the Riverside Centre in Newport.  With the closure of the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight planned for the end of July, local people are faced with around 600 job losses, and wider society is threatened with the loss of one of the most important industrial plants in the country.

Gordon Brown and the government have at last committed to carbon emissions reductions. Ed Miliband came to the Isle of Wight this month to congratulate the islanders on the green initiatives taking place where you are. Locals clearly care enough about climate change to mount a campaign called ‘Give Bees a Chance’ and start up recycling schemes for the Isle of Wight Festival: so defending Vestas ought to be an easy next step.

Workers must not be fired from their wind turbine factory. It is they, and workers worldwide, who will suffer the impacts of climate change before everyone else. It is in their direct interest to keep green energy expanding.

According to Vestas online, they are “number one in wind solutions” and could therefore almost certainly afford a dip in profits, even during economically tough times, for the sake of helping mitigate far greater threats. Shareholders must not be put above workers in this case. A firm local show of  commitment to the continuation of the wind-turbine plant on the Isle of Wight would represent a brave and responsible stance towards the international climate security crisis.

Come and camp on the island, and help us to talk to local people, make contacts and coordinate action!  Join us on July 3rd to hear how other workers have fought closures, and to plan what we can do on the island and in the national movement to save the factory.

Follow all the Island Pulse News relating to Vestas HERE: Vestas wind turbine factory.