Industrial action...

[Hibou]

... usually seems to mean industrial inaction.

Just a thought.

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

On 2023-03-10 18:08:32 +0000, Hibou said:

> ... usually seems to mean industrial inaction.
>
> Just a thought.

I've thought that for long time. At this moment we're having a lot of
industrial action in France, over the age of retirement, which the
Government want to raise to 64 (simplifying a lot), an age that itself
seems rather low to some of us.


--
Athel -- French and British, living in Marseilles for 36 years; mainly
in England until 1987.

[Sam Plusnet]

On 10-Mar-23 18:08, Hibou wrote:
> ... usually seems to mean industrial inaction.
>
> Just a thought.

I suppose it means taking some form of 'action' against the employer,
but it is an infelicitous term from the onlooker's point of view,
especially if you are a 'customer' of the organisation involved.

--
Sam Plusnet

[Garrett Wollman]

In article <tufrn0$22c6i$2...@dont-email.me>,

Hibou <vpaereru-u...@yahoo.com.invalid> wrote:
>... usually seems to mean industrial inaction.
>
>Just a thought.

On this side of the pond, that collocation is not widely used, and I'm
not sure it would even be all that widely understood -- we normally
just say "strikes" (or for BrE "taking industrial action", "going on
strike"). We have very little heavy industry left, relative to the
whole economy, and strikes are much more common in service-sector
industries and government, often in jobs like nursing and teaching
where are stereotyped as "female" and also obviously not "industry"
(normally taken to mean "mining and manufacturing").

-GAWollman

--
Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can,
wol...@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is
Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Friday, March 10, 2023 at 3:22:33 PM UTC-5, Garrett Wollman wrote:
> In article <tufrn0$22c6i$2...@dont-email.me>,
> Hibou <vpaereru-u...@yahoo.com.invalid> wrote:

> >... usually seems to mean industrial inaction.
> >Just a thought.
>
> On this side of the pond, that collocation is not widely used, and I'm
> not sure it would even be all that widely understood -- we normally
> just say "strikes" (or for BrE "taking industrial action", "going on
> strike"). We have very little heavy industry left, relative to the
> whole economy, and strikes are much more common in service-sector
> industries and government,

The only "sectors" (does that term travel?) where unions have any
clout any more.

The faculty of Rutgers The State University of New Jersey just
voted 90% in favor of striking in support of pay fairness for the
adjuncts.

> often in jobs like nursing and teaching
> where are stereotyped as "female" and also obviously not "industry"
> (normally taken to mean "mining and manufacturing").

Is it a Brit phrase, or taken over from French?

[Hibou]

Le 10/03/2023 à 18:42, Athel Cornish-Bowden a écrit :
> On 2023-03-10 18:08:32 +0000, Hibou said:
>>
>> ... usually seems to mean industrial inaction.
>>
>> Just a thought.
>
> I've thought that for long time. At this moment we're having a lot of
> industrial action in France, over the age of retirement, which the
> Government want to raise to 64 (simplifying a lot), an age that itself
> seems rather low to some of us.

Yes, France's retirement age is one of the lowest in Europe - The
Netherlands 68... the UK 66... France and Slovakia 62 - as can be seen
in this sortable table:

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement_age#Retirement_age_by_country_and_region>

The French seem to be denying the obvious need to raise the retirement
age as people live longer, so as to balance the books.

In my own mind, I think of the current movement as the 'gilets tricotés'
(the knitted gilets) - cf. the 'gilets jaunes'.

Hope you aren't inconvenienced too much by the action today.

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

On 2023-03-11 05:57:10 +0000, Hibou said:

> Le 10/03/2023 à 18:42, Athel Cornish-Bowden a écrit :
>> On 2023-03-10 18:08:32 +0000, Hibou said:
>>>
>>> ... usually seems to mean industrial inaction.
>>>
>>> Just a thought.
>>
>> I've thought that for long time. At this moment we're having a lot of
>> industrial action in France, over the age of retirement, which the
>> Government want to raise to 64 (simplifying a lot), an age that itself
>> seems rather low to some of us.
>
> Yes, France's retirement age is one of the lowest in Europe - The
> Netherlands 68... the UK 66... France and Slovakia 62 - as can be seen
> in this sortable table:
>
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement_age#Retirement_age_by_country_and_region>
>
>
> The French seem to be denying the obvious need to raise the retirement
> age as people live longer, so as to balance the books.

Obvious to you and me, yes, but plenty of people would like it to be decreased.

>
> In my own mind, I think of the current movement as the 'gilets
> tricotés' (the knitted gilets) - cf. the 'gilets jaunes'.

I hope they won' come back, but I'm not confident. In their heyday I
called them the Voyous jaunes in French or Yellow hooligans in English.

>
> Hope you aren't inconvenienced too much by the action today.

Not too much. Things are very calm in the 8th Arrondissement. We hardly
ever go downtown any more, and for the moment we don't need to go to
the station..

[HVS]

On 10 Mar 2023, Hibou wrote

> ... usually seems to mean industrial inaction.
>
> Just a thought.

This one only works when spoken:

"We took the kids to Parliament to see government in action, and to
find out if that was three words, or just two."

[JNugent]

On 10/03/2023 06:08 pm, Hibou wrote:

> ... usually seems to mean industrial inaction.

As mentioned in a letter to the (London) Times many years ago (not by me).

[Hibou]

Le 10/03/2023 à 18:08, Hibou a écrit :
>
> ... usually seems to mean industrial inaction.
>
> Just a thought.

Bizarrely, HMG talks of 'industrialised action':

<https://www.cjoint.com/c/MCrki3puqmJ>

(Link valid 21 days. Screencap because the original page changes
frequently.)

What can it mean?

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

On Fri, 10 Mar 2023 20:22:29 -0000 (UTC), wol...@bimajority.org
(Garrett Wollman) wrote:

>In article <tufrn0$22c6i$2...@dont-email.me>,
>Hibou <vpaereru-u...@yahoo.com.invalid> wrote:
>>... usually seems to mean industrial inaction.
>>
>>Just a thought.
>
>On this side of the pond, that collocation is not widely used, and I'm
>not sure it would even be all that widely understood -- we normally
>just say "strikes" (or for BrE "taking industrial action", "going on
>strike").

Surprisingly the earliest quote in the OED for "industrial action" is
from an Americn publication:

industrial action n. concerted action aimed at reducing work or
productivity (such as a strike, a go-slow, or working to rule),
taken by workers in a given industry as a form of protest over pay
or conditions.

1914 Sewanee Rev. 22 405 The league aims at teaching..the
general strike, sabotage, and boycott, the organization of the
unorganized, and industrial action generally.
1972 Guardian 15 June 26/1 I fear..that if you imprison
individual dockers we are going to get full scale industrial action.
2011 Daily Tel. 30 Nov. 1/2 Workers ranging from lollipop ladies
to nuclear physicists are expected to join the industrial action
over pensions today.

> We have very little heavy industry left, relative to the
>whole economy, and strikes are much more common in service-sector
>industries and government, often in jobs like nursing and teaching
>where are stereotyped as "female" and also obviously not "industry"
>(normally taken to mean "mining and manufacturing").
>
>-GAWollman

--

Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)