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

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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

Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA's resident doctor committee, said: "It's very regrettable and I am very sorry to any patients who are affected by this industrial action."

From BBC • Apr. 6, 2026

The market is vulnerable to outages anywhere, from hurricanes, industrial action or cyberattacks.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026

As part of industrial action short of strike during pay disputes in recent years, teachers had boycotted inspections.

From BBC • Apr. 1, 2026

There follows a discussion of the old tactics of labor, its first political experience, and its final return to direct industrial action.

From The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921 by Various

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