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The environment

Protecting our environment from profit-driven destruction

Conference For A Million Climate Jobs

13/03/2010

Speakers include
Alex Gordon (RMT), Tony Kearns (CWU), Manuel Cortes (TSSA), Chris Baugh (PCS), Prof. Barbara Harriss-White, Phil Thornhill (CaCC), Jonathan Neale (Million Green Jobs Commission), John Stewart (HACAN), Graham Petersen (UCU), Larry Lohman (Cornerhouse), Ian Terry (former Vestas worker)

Admission £10 (£5 concessions)
South Camden Community School, Charrington St, London NW1 1RG
Phone: 079 585 35231 Email: climatetradeunion@googlemail.com
campaign against climate change trade union group
Third Trade Union Conference
www.campaigncc.org cacctu.wordpress.com

Public meeting: Climate Action Now!

24/11/2009 20:00

HARINGEY AND ENFIELD PUBLIC MEETING
Organised by the Sustainable Haringey network and the Campaign against Climate Change

CLIMATE ACTION NOW!
What can we do to stop climate change, and to make the transition to a fair and sustainable society?

Tuesday November 24th
8pm - Wood Green Library
High Road, N22 - Just south of Wood Green tube

Film: 'Countdown To Copenhagen' (newly made by Haringey documentary team, Reel News)
Speakers: including a windturbine factory worker from Vestas who was recently involved in occupying the plant to prevent its closure
+ Discussion

Film night: Countdown to Copenhagen

24/11/2009 19:00
24/11/2009 21:00

Venue: Bread and Roses Pub, 68 Clapham Manor Street, SW4 6DZ
(about ten minutes walk from Clapham Common tube)

It is now clear that there will be no binding agreement at Copenhagen to stop runaway climate change.

Countdown to Copenhagen film night will provide a chance to discuss the issues around the Copenhagen talks, how to get to Copenhagen for the mass mobilisations and what we can do locally.

Films:

Save Vestas

Campaign Against Climate Change – National Demonstration

05/12/2009 12:00

Pollution‘Fight for 1 million Green Jobs’

The Campaign Against Climate Change has called demonstrations in London and Edinburgh on Saturday 5th December to fight for one million green jobs and publicity flyers are attached. The RMT is affiliated to the Campaign and I would urge all members to participate in these demonstrations. Assembly at the larger London event will be from 12pm in Hyde Park.

Copenhagen Climate Justice

07/12/2009
16/12/2009

PollutionPlease find below information on the Copenhagen Climate Justice event:

Check Climate Justice Action website. Actions include
• 7 December:
o Climate Justice Fast! (12:00 am)
o Take Action! COP 15 Starts (9:00 am)
• 11 December:
o Don't Buy the Lie- anti-corporate action at the COP (2:00 am)
• 12 December:
o Flood For Climate Justice (2:00 am)
o Global Day of Action (all day)

Emergency resolution: Vestas, Copenhagen and Green Jobs

The following resolution, submitted by TfL no.1 branch and seconded by Hammersmith & City branch, was passed by the October meeting of the Regional Council.

This branch recognises the importance of the fight for green jobs and the upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen.

RMT Slams “Damaging” TfL Fare Increases

commutersTUBE AND TfL union RMT today slammed confirmation from Mayor Boris Johnson that tube fares will increase by 3.9% from next year and bus fares by over 12% as “dire news in the middle of a recession which will be deeply damaging to passenger numbers and revenue income.”

In further bad news for public transport in the capital, TfL's business plan, to be considered by TfL's board next week, includes the deferral by three years of all remaining station renewals which were to have been completed by the failed private Tube maintenance company Metronet.

Defend Green Jobs

Becky Crocker, our Regional Young Members' Officer, writes ...

This Thursday 17th September is the second national day of action to support Vestas workers. After 18 days of occupying their factory against closure, Vestas wind turbine workers are maintaining a 24-hour blockade of the site, preventing plant and turbine blades getting out. The workers are demanding the government nationalise their factory, because the market will not guarantee their jobs or the future of the planet!

Public meeting: Green Jobs and the Green Energy Revolution - is the government doing enough?

07/09/2009 19:00

Venue: Conway Hall, Red Lion Square (Holborn tube)

Speakers include:

  • John McDonnell MP (Labour, Hayes and Harlington),
  • Bob Crow (RMT General Secretary)
  • Tony Juniper (ex Director, Friends of the Earth, Green Party candidate)
  • Ian Terry (worker from the Vestas wind turbine factory)
  • Phil Thornhill (Campaign against Climate Change)

Don't miss this important meeting on the UK's future direction in the era of Climate Emergency - are we moving full steam ahead towards Green Jobs and the Green Energy Revolution at a speed that we can and should ?

National day of action: Save Vestas!

17/09/2009

Actions around the country to support workers at Vestas, Isle of Wight, fighting to save Britain's only wind turbine factory from closure. Check back here for details as they become available.

Action to Support Vestas Workers

29/08/2009 11:00

A team sponsored by Vestas is playing at Wembley. Campaigners will be taking this opportunity to voice our objections to the company closing Britain's only wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight, at the cost of 600+ jobs.

Meet at Wembley Park tube at 11am.

More details from our Young Members' Officer, Becky Crocker.

RMT calls for full support for Vestas day of action

OFFSHORE ENERGY UNION RMT today called for full support for a day of action in support of the Vestas wind turbines factory campaign which will be marked by events up and down the country tomorrow (Wednesday August 12).

RMT, which represents a substantial block of the Vestas workforce, is continuing to support the fight to get the Isle of Wight factory back into production and is sending out a clear signal that the campaign for wind turbine manufacture in England is far from over.

Support the Vestas Workers!

From Becky Crocker, Regional Young Members' officer

Dear London Transport region

On Monday 3rd August, I visited the Vestas factory on the Isle of Wight, which its workers have occupied to stop its closure and save their 600 jobs.

Vestas is the only factory in Britain making blades for wind turbines.

Wind power is part of the government’s strategy for switching to 15% renewable energy by 2020. But the private company Vestas have calculated they can make more money by moving their factory elsewhere: profit comes first and jobs and the environment second.

RMT accuses Vestas of knocking back turbine factory rescue deal

OFFSHORE ENERGY UNION RMT today accused the owners of the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight of “kicking the legs” from under a rescue package that could have saved it from closure.

RMT officials Bob Crow and John Leach, along with representatives of the Vestas workforce, met with energy minister Joan Ruddock yesterday to discuss the future of the factory.

During the meeting it emerged that the government had offered a series of rescue options to the company but each one had been rejected.

SAVE VESTAS: Get a place on the solidarity bus - Friday evening

BUS TO VESTAS: FRIDAY EVENING: STOP THE EVICTION

From Workers' Climate Action

Everyone down at Vestas is still standing strong in the face of the possession order. A bus of about 20 Londoners went down on Tuesday evening, but everyone is getting pretty tired and another boost is needed!

A minibus (or two!) will be leaving London on Friday evening from Clapham at 6pm heading for Vestas. The bus will return on Sunday. It will cost between £10-£15 a head (or a bit more if you can afford to subsidise others) and will deliver a boost in numbers and energy to the fight to save jobs and save the planet!

Vestas: TUC Writes to Government

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber has sent the following letter to Ed Miliband MP, Secretary of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change ...

Dear Ed

Vestas Wind Systems

As you are aware, the TUC shares your absolute commitment to tackle climate change, including through the development of a low carbon industrial strategy with quality green jobs and skills at its heart.

Vestas Wind Turbine Factory Occupation – Two Victories in One Week! Show your support and solidarity

From Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary

As you are probably aware the RMT, which has thousands of members in the offshore energy sector and is currently providing all possible support to the workers fighting for their jobs at the Vestas Wind Turbine Factory on the Isle of Wight.

RMT has secured two huge victories in one week in the battle to save the Vestas Wind Turbine Factory.

On Tuesday RMT barristers beat off a court attempt by the company to take action to end the occupation by the workers in the factory.

RMT backs Vestas factory occupation

RMT pledges full support to Vestas occupation – Bob Crow to visit factory tomorrow

TRANSPORT UNION RMT today pledged full support to the workers occupying the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight and confirmed that RMT general secretary Bob Crow will be making a solidarity visit to the occupation at 6pm tomorrow evening (Thursday 23rd July).

The Vestas factory is the only unit in England manufacturing wind turbines. The Dutch company which owns it are trying to close the factory down with the loss of 625 jobs blaming the British government’s lack of commitment to renewable energy. The company is reported to have made profits of $56 million in the> first quarter of this year alone – a rise of 70% on last year.

The factory has been under workers occupation since Tuesday. Communication lines into the factory have been cut and deliveries of food and water have been blockaded by private security guards. This morning, those involved in the occupation have been threatened with summary dismissal.

Bob Crow, RMT general secretary, said today:
“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.

Save Vestas Wind Turbine Plant

Below is the message of support from RMT London Transport Regional Council to the 'Save Vestas' campaign. You can keep up-to-date with the campaign by clicking here.

I am writing to give my full support to the campaign to save the Vestas wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight.

Prine Minister Gordon Brown has stated that we need 'green jobs' both to tackle the recession and to save the environment. If he does not act to save Vestas, his words will be shown to be meaningless and hypocritical. The government should bring Vestas into public ownership, and run it democratically in the interests of working-class people and the future of our world.

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