CGT Job Fair in Northern Colorado

More than 1,000 people -- all with dreams of someday working at the first Vestas Wind Systems wind blade manufacturing plant in the United States--showed up at a job fair in Loveland, Colorado. Vestas Blades America was on hand to answer questions about the new facility under construction in Windsor... The factory is scheduled to open in March 2008.
A manager for Vestas told the crowd that the very basic blue collar worker at the plant will earn between $30,000 and $35,000 per year and be eligible for full benefits the first day of the first full month they are employed. Those benefits include paid holidays and vacations as well as medical, dental, vision and life insurance for employees and their families -- all with premiums paid entirely by Vestas. The presentation discussing the vision, values and mission of the Denmark-based company that began in 1898 as a blacksmithing company. "We want to make wind on par worldwide with oil and gas," he said. "This is going to be a huge impact on northern Colorado whether you work at the plant or you don't. Failure is not an option. This is the culture of Vestas. We will instill that culture in this plant, and we will hold to those values."

Vestas Blades America will construct more than 400, 40-meter wind turbines a year at the 200,000 square-foot plant in Windsor. Four hundred turbines can supply 225,000 homes with electricity for a year. Vestas is the largest manufacturer of wind turbines in the world, employing more than 14,000 people, with a 1 percent employee turnover rate. The Windsor plant will employ more than 400 people at full production in January 2009.