industrial action

American

noun

Chiefly British.

job action.

industrial action British

noun

any action, such as a strike or go-slow, taken by employees in industry to protest against working conditions, redundancies, etc

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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For more details on the impact of the industrial action on your commute, click on the explainer below.

From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026

The breaking of parity for some jobs in recent years had led to strikes and other industrial action.

From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026

This follows lessons learned from deployments on days with industrial action.

From BBC • Apr. 13, 2026

The offer - aimed at avoiding industrial action – applied to doctors, nurses and auxiliary staff, but not homecare workers in the independent sector.

From BBC • Apr. 7, 2026

There has been, it appears, an unfortunate misunderstanding as to the exact meaning of the term "industrial action."

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, June 4, 1919. by Various

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023