After 139 days of occupying their factory, the Vita Cortex workers have reached an agreement with employer Jack Ronan. By taking decisive action in taking over their workplace and by remaining steadfast, the workers have been partly successful in achieving their extremely modest demands.

One hundred and fifteen Irish Cement workers have been on strike since 3 April at plants in Limerick and Drogheda. Despite being a subsidiary of CRH, the fourth largest building company in the world with profits of €711 million in 2011, Irish Cement is attempting to use the crisis to drive down wages and cut jobs.

On Monday 26 March GAME workers begun their sit-in protest,  after they were told to close stores early and go home, as there was no longer a job for them. The staff were told they would have to apply to the state for redundancy and that they were not getting wages due to them.

The occupation, which began on 26 December by the 32 sacked workers in Vita Cortex is rightly seen as inspirational by other workers up and down the country. They have almost 900 years of service between them, are forced to sleep on the factory floor and endure the harsh damp building throughout Christmas and continue to endure such hardships.