WORKERS BESEIGED BY RIOT POLICE

The two biggest stories in the New Zealand media of late have been the death of a celebrity (Michael Jackson) and a lurid murder case (Clayton Weatherston). Neither story tells us anything about ourselves but they do tell us a lot about the priorities of the mainstream media.

Another story that won't make TV1,TV3 or the NZ Herald because it involves neither a dead celebrity or a lurid murder, is an industrial struggle presently happening on the Isle Of Wight.

This is what a recent press story says;

Workers staging a sit-in at the soon-to-close Vestas wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight are being starved out by police.

The police, many inside the factory and dressed in riot gear, have denied food to the workers who took over the factory offices last night, to protest about the closure of their factory. The police, operating with highly questionable legal authority, have surrounded the offices, preventing supporters from joining the sit-in, and preventing food from being brought to the protestors.

Around 20 workers at the Vestas Plant in Newport, on the Isle of Wight, occupied the top floor of offices in their factory to protest against its closure which will result in over 500 job losses.

Acting without an injunction, on private property, the police have repeatedly tried to break into the office where the protesting workers have barricaded themselves, and have threatened the workers with arrest for aggravated trespass, despite the fact that no damage has been done to the property where the protest is taking place. Police have also forcibly removed people from private property, another action that is of very questionable legality in the absence of a formal injunction.

If you want to read more go to this blog Save Vistas.