On 10 December  2009 workers from Collar Textil started the occupation of the plant in Opatów. It began when the workers had decided to prevent the disposal of tools, engines and textile stuff. WI directly supports this action. Former manager tried to steal the property of the company. The policemen who were brought to the plant were more interested in former director's application who suggested that she was unlawfully deprived of freedom. By the way policemen did not check if she was authorized to be there. The other former director was in the premises as well and he denied to have been imprisoned. He signed a paper that he had spent over 12 hours in the factory volontuarily.

After an agreement was signed on November 25, 2009, by the Workers' Initiative (IP) and HCP SA (the owner of the Cegielski factory) the collective dispute ended, and the five IP-activists, who had been illegally fired earlier, could return to work. HCP SA also recognized the union protection for the five activists. The Workers' Initiative agreed to suspend protests while the management promised not to make further redundancies.

Two wildcat strikes took place today, first in the Fabryka Pojazdow Szynowych in Poznan, a plant owned by HCP (Cegielski) company, and the second one in the Wagon factory in Ostrow, a railway rolling-stock producer and repairer factory. In both cases, the workers demanded payment of wage arrears. They also claim that their protest may have more radical forms in the future.

First meeting of released workers from Cegielski factory organized by Workers' Initiative took place. The meeting gathered 40 of 500 released workers. The Committee of Unemployed Workers of HCP was formed. The first action of the Committee is going to be a rally in front of the seat of HCP management on Friday, 20th of November 2009, demanding payment of wage arrears and severance package. Weeks ago the management after massive layoffs announced that all dismissed workers were going to receive their money on November 10. The promise turned out to be empty – none got a penny.

This text is going to describe the historical and present meaning of the Cegielski factory in Poznan for the workers' movement in Poland, and the history of activity of Workers' Initiative in the factory since 2002. We are also going to show the development of the strategy of wildcat strikes called "płyta" during this years, for which a key activist of IP was recently sentenced in the Polish court. Last but not least, the article shows the recent influence of the global crises in the shipyards industry on the situation of Cegielski workers: 500 of them were fired, which mobilized others to mass demonstration in October 2009.

On 23^rd October almost 4,000 workers from different trade unions took part in a demonstration in defence of their workplaces. About 500 people are going to be fired from the Cegielski factory due to the so-called economic crisis. Anarchists and members of anarcho-syndicalist trade union Wokers' Initiative also took part in the protest.

The demonstrtors first gathered on the premises of the factory and then moved towards the Provincial Office. The bloc of Workers' Initiative and Sierpien '80 together with the anarchists was chanting slogans such as “Government out to the pavement, paving stones on the government”, “One, two, three, four, stop those damn dismissals”, “A worker dismissed, a boss hanged”, “Capitalism isn't working! factories under the control of workers” etc. Rhythms of Resistance samba group from Poznan supported the demo with their rhythms. A banner saying “A worker dismissed, a boss hanged” was dropped from one building on the route of the demo.