In a meeting with two Vestas workers and senior union officials, Joan Ruddock, MP said those who were sacked for taking part in the Vestas sit-in should get their redundancy reinstated.
We’ve recently spoken to Sean McDonagh from Vestas who was on his way back from a meeting in London with Minister of State, Joan Ruddock MP.
He and Mike Godley had met with TUC, Unite, Bob Crow (RMT) and John Leach, President of the RMT, at the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) to discuss with Joan Ruddock what the government could do for the workers at the Vestas Blades plant.
The minister said that she was fully supportive that those who took part in the sit-in should not lose their redundancy benefits as the company had threatened them with in their dismissal notices.
She also said, “Vestas might have abandoned the Island, but the government won’t.”
We spoke to the DECC press office and they told us that they cannot comment on the conversation.
Vestas – Not interested
During the discussion Joan Ruddock also said that the government had carried out extensive talks with the management of Vestas and no matter what they offered, Vestas were not interested in keeping the factory open making wind turbine blades.
Sean said that the MP was also very sympathetic.
Meeting of all Vestas employees on Wednesday
There’s a call out to all (ex-)Vestas employees to attend a meeting on this coming Wednesday where Bob Crow, General Secretary of the RMT, will talk about securing the best redundancies for those losing their jobs.
More details later.
