Unions and climate change campaigners have joined forces in solidarity with Vestas workers in their second day of occupation at the factory on the Isle of Wight.
Vestas employers are keen to move production abroad to China and the US with the loss of 625 jobs, despite making over £34 million profit in the first quarter of this year alone - up 70 per cent on last year.
But the defiant workers at the wind turbine production plant showed no signs of backing down until their demands for nationalisation and restoration of their "green jobs" at the plant are implemented.
A 200-strong picket line has massed outside the factory in support of the occupation.
In response to the show of strength by the workers, Vestas management have closed the factory and hired a private security firm to "protect the premises."
The anti-union employer stepped up the blockade by cutting communication lines and access to food and water.
Even though no crime has been committed on the site, Hampshire Police have set up an "operations base" in the building where the occupying workers are holed up.
The workforce have accused the police of being complicit in stopping food and water from reaching them.
Police arrested a man on suspicion of breach of the peace as he tried to enter the building in the early hours to deliver food to the workers but released him without charge.
But a mass walk-in from supporting protesters outside the plant made it inside this afternoon to get food to the workers.
Floods of support have poured in from all over Britain, with trade unions and climate change activists eager to show solidarity.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow declared the union's "full support" for the occupation and urged the entire trade union movement to get behind the Vestas workers.
"Nothing underlines the attack on job and communities that has been unleashed in the UK by greedy bosses and incompetent politicians better than the occupation at Vestas," he said.
Mr Crow underlined the importance of the occupation and agreed with the workers' calls for nationalisation.
But the RMT leader, who plans to address workers at the factory gates today, questioned why the police had such a heavy presence at the site.
"Why is the state intervening in what is a perfectly legitimate trading dispute?
"This is a major issue for whole trade union movement - we can't allow these workers to be starved back to work," he said.
"There's a simple solution to this dispute. The government should nationalise the factory, protect the jobs and show that they are walking the walk when it come to green and renewable energy."
Unite national secretary for manufacturing John Rowse urged the government to save Vestas.
"It would send out a clear message that it is serious about saving the environment as well as supporting UK manufacturing," he said.
Climate change campaigners staged a rally against the closure outside the Department of Energy in central London in support of the occupation.
Morning Star - 22.07.09
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