Workers cut at blade factory

What do you do with employees who occupy your factory?

If you're Danish wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems, you apparently cut them.

Vestas today confirmed it is cancelling plans to retool a U.K. factory from 40-meter blades to 44-meter blades, citing tough economic market conditions. So that's expected to mean the jobs of 600 people at the factory, located on the Isle of Wight on the English Channel, slated for closure on July 31.

Three of the Vestas squatters.

Nine days ago, some 20 workers at the Isle of Wight factory staged a sit-in to prevent the factory’s closure. They're upset because the move comes on the heels of the U.K. government announcing a major expansion of renewable energy, including wind power.

Workers occupying the factory vowed today to continue their protest for another week after a failed legal attempt to evict them. Vestas wasn't able to obtain a court order to remove the workers.

The workers have been signing petitions, encouraging organized demonstrations of solidarity and calling on Vestas and the government to save their jobs and keep the factory open.

While the workers had previously accused Vestas of trying to starve them out by blocking incoming food supplies, those remaining today received pizza slices ... with termination letters underneath them.

"Vestas ... unfortunately, saw no other choice than to dismiss the 11 employees, who the company has positively identified as the employees currently participating in the occupation of the factory," the company said in a statement [ed.: no reference to the pizza.]

Vestas says it intends to continue with previous plans to expand an existing research and development on the Isle of Wight by investing in a new blade technology center. The center, scheduled to open in 2011, is expected to be capable of designing and manufacturing prototypes and testing large wind turbine blades.

Vestas has said it has excess production capacity in Northern Europe and that the market in the U.K. isn't growing fast enough.