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

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

From BBC • Apr. 13, 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

What can be attained by industrial action, such as strikes, can be effected in even greater measure through fiscal action.

From American World Policies by Weyl, Walter E.

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