A Red and Green Coalition

Often the cause of labour and that of environmentalism clash – for example in the UK debate of the expansion of Heathrow airport we see the union siding with the airport operators, both of whom are squared off against a coalition of environmentalists and residents who will see their houses lost.  The often over-simplistic ‘jobs first’ view of workers struggle seems to relegate environmental concerns to the back of issues that unions will act upon.  While this is not always the case, examples of unions either opposing or at least keeping quiet of environmental concerns outweigh the examples of seeing a point of join action.  Currently in the UK we have an example of the latter – a rare coalition of the red (the workers) and green (environmentalists) are united to save the UK’s only wind turbine plant, Vestas Blades UK.  The plant is due to close at the end of this month – coincidently around the same time the UK government unveiled a new strategy of climate change that places an emphasis on renewables, including wind power.  The focus of saving jobs and trying to stop runaway climate change has created a focus for activity;

Greenpeace said the Vestas dispute promised a historic change from a situation where the labour movement and environment activists have found themselves on different sides of the fence, with one wanting to shut down polluting industries and the other defending jobs.

“Although we have always tried to highlight the employment opportunities that could flow from a low-carbon economy, historically there has been animosity between the two sides. If we can build this new alliance and break down those perceived barriers then there all sorts of exciting opportunities,” said John Sauven, UK executive director of Greenpeace.

The RMT transport union endorsed the Vestas dispute as a springboard for closer co-operation, with its general secretary, Bob Crow – better known for addressing striking London Underground workers – visiting the wind plant today. He said: “There is an interesting coalition growing around Vestas that builds on issues where we have common cause such as public transport, which is really green transport. But this is a unique situation [on the Isle of Wight] involving globalisation, recession and the kind of low-carbon manufacturing jobs that everyone can relate to.”

The growing protests are embarrassing the energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, who last week promised that thousands of new jobs would come from a new, low-carbon economy and now finds himself on the defensive over a decision by a cash-rich company to close a plant directly involved in renewable energy.


With the pressure piling on from both sides, it will be interesting to see how the UK government reacts – it is also interesting to note that there is attention being paid to peer-related solutions to the situation – as cited on the Save Vestas blog, pointing to peer funding of renewables (for example the Fenland Power Co-op).

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