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 financial costs of industrial action in the NHS are fairly opaque," said Sally Gainsbury of the Nuffield Trust.

From BBC • Apr. 13, 2026

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has told the BBC the government "categorically" did not change its deal with resident doctors to end ongoing industrial action over pay and jobs.

From BBC • Apr. 12, 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

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