VESTAS WORKERS BESIEGED BY RIOT POLICE
(Updated Press Release from the Vestas Occupation blog)
 http://savevestas.wordpress.com/

Workers staging a sit-in at the soon-to-close Vestas wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight are being starved out by police.

The police, many inside the factory and dressed in riot gear, have denied food to the workers who took over the factory offices last night, to protest the closure of their factory. The police, operating with highly questionable legal authority, have surrounded the offices, preventing supporters from joining the sit-in, and preventing food from being brought to the protestors.

Around 20 workers at the Vestas Plant in Newport, on the Isle of Wight, occupied the top floor of offices in their factory to protest against its closure which will result in over 500 job losses.

Acting without an injunction, on private property, the police have repeatedly tried to break into the office where the protesting workers have barricaded themselves, and have threatened the workers with arrest for aggravated trespass, despite the fact that no damage has been done to the property where the protest is taking place. Police have also forcibly removed people from private property, another action that is of very questionable legality in the absence of a formal injunction.

The office involved in the latter action was number 3606. The officer who appears to be in charge is 3115. This heavy handed response is the latest in a long line of over-reactions to protest by various UK police forces.
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Vestas Sit-in Told To Leave Or Be Removed: Update
Tuesday, 21st July, 2009 (4 hours ago) at 5:01 pm (4 hours ago), Isle of Wight

The latest twist in the stand off between the Vestas workers carrying out a sit-in at the Newport plant has come to light.

We’ve been told by Vestas workers outside that contact has been made by Vestas with those inside.

We understand that the company has told those inside that if they leave the building by 6:30pm tonight, they will keep their double statutory pay off - otherwise they will be forcibly removed.

UPDATE: The police inspector has just arrived and been asked if the police are planning to remove the protesters. He’s said that they won’t be taking the protesters out, as long as the protesters don’t break up the place.


Vestas Sit-in: Police Interview
Tuesday, 21st July, 2009 (2 hours ago) at 6:43 pm , Isle of Wight

We’ve just had a chat to Paul Savill, Safer neighbourhood Inspector on the Isle of Wight.
He confirmed that the police are here to make sure that there is no civil disorder.

He said there was no problem at all and that, “You can only describe today’s actions as peaceful.”

We asked them to clarify about the police and their possible use of riot police.

He confirmed that they did first go in, they did so with riot shields because they didn’t know what to expect.

He went to say, “As soon as it became obvious that there was no physical violence against us, the shields were put down and they haven’t been picked up since.”

Good natured
We said that in the chats that we’d had with people inside, they seemed pretty good natured and that they were keen to make it peaceful.

Inspector Savill agreed, “We’ve been able to speak to a spokesperson in there and all they want to do is to make their feeling known, as you can see from the banners.” He concluded, “I think the most important thing to them is to be heard.”

The Inspector also confirmed that the police wouldn’t be going in to forcible remove the people in the Vestas building.

A trespass has occurred
Inspector Savill said that the police were aware that not everyone inside the building was an employee or an ex-employee of Vestas - so trespass has occurred.

He also said that he’d been told by the managers of Vestas that they decided to close the site for safety reasons. This disruption could form part of an offense.


Food Restricted For Vestas Sit-in Protesters
We understand from the Vestas’ workers outside the Newport plant that Vestas have offered food to those inside the building protesting - but only on the condition that those inside leave the building to get the food.

If they exit the building, the protesters won’t be allowed back in again.

Police are standing between the supporters outside and the Vestas building, stopping people passing food to those inside. We spoke to the police on duty and they confirmed this was the case.


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Above posts from the Vestas Updates here on a local news blog::
 http://ventnorblog.com/