A sit-down strike is a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at factories or other centralized locations, take possession of the workplace by "sitting down" at their stations, effectively preventing their employers from replacing them with strikebreakers or, in some cases, moving production to other locations. Workers have used this technique since the beginning of the 20th century in countries such as United States, Italy, Poland, Yugoslavia, and France.