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 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

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

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026

To this party, since 1909, all the important Unions have belonged, but in spite of the fact that its strength is derived from Trade Unions, it has stood always for political rather than industrial action.

From Proposed Roads to Freedom by Russell, Bertrand

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