After four of the Vestas Sit-in workers left their occupation of the blade factory on Tuesday this week, we caught up with them on the other side of the fence.
First up is our chat with Dan Lashley, Chris Ash and Mike Godley for what we believe was the first full interview to be videoed after they had left.
Not surprisingly, after leaving the factory, the lads went straight home to wash, eat and spend a bit of time with their families. We didn’t expect them to head back to the factory so soon, but later in the day they reappeared, saying they felt it was important to show their support for the lads still inside.
What Did They Get Up To Inside?
We’ve been wondering what sort of things they’ve been doing to keep themselves occupied whilst inside the factory, so pleased to hear that they’d been very busy whilst inside.
Vestas Sit-In The Musical!
Aside from the regular meetings (instigated in order to keep some routine to their days) we hear that they’ve created and filmed a unique musical about their time there, spearheaded by Seb Sikora with help from Mike. We can’t wait to see the script for that one!
Mission-Not-Impossible
Readers might remember the news that the workers had taken over the entire factory on Monday night – Dan tells us how they acted it out in a ‘Mission Impossible’ style with all sorts of shenanigans taking place to avoid being seen by CCTV cameras.
Public Support Vital
They went to tell us how important it was to have the supporters showing up every day for the 6pm rally, giving those inside the morale boost that was needed to help keep them going.
Mike stresses on the video how the factory closures will have a big impact on the Island, from Gurit supplying resins, to the local produce used for the daily catering to businesses such as Sydenhams who supplied tools.
Further discussions
We talked some more about the attitude of a lot of the Isle of Wight councillors; how most of them hadn’t even been down to the site; that if they’d have done something earlier, it may not have come to this; how the primary objective of Vestas was to recruit people to work in plant who showed initiative and were good problem solvers – ideal skills for taking over a factory, Dan says.
Anyway, sit back and watch for yourselves. We’ve got a separate interview with Seb to follow.
If you want to see it full screen, click on the icon on the bottom right hand corner.
