sit-down strike
3
4.4
- noun
- /ˈsɪtˌdaʊn straɪk/
:
huelga sentada
- Less than two years after the Flint sit-down strike, Trotsky warned of the inevitable degeneration of the CIO on the basis of the bureaucracy's political perspective.
Examples
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During the sit-down strike, employees refused to leave their jobs until management agreed to negotiate.
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Do you think we need another sit-down strike here?
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Should Wal-Mart workers stage a sit-down strike?
Blog text (27) -
Rollo decided to engage in a sit-down strike in front of the 79th Street entrance on Fifth Avenue.
Blog text (33) -
A few days later, Rep. Luis Gutierrez and other community leaders staged a sit-down strike and were arrested in front of the White House.
Blog text (3) -
Workers organized a sit-down strike to demand better wages and safer working conditions.
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The famous sit-down strike at the factory lasted for two weeks and led to significant changes in labor rights.
Synonyms
133
3.2
To stop work as a protest to get better pay
16
4.9
A protest where people sit in a place and refuse to leave
9
4.2
A time when workers stop working to protest about pay or conditions
2
6.4
Workers who stay in their workplace and refuse to leave until the employer meets their demands
1
5.7
Temporary work protest by workers to demand better pay or conditions
1
7.4
A protest where workers work slowly on purpose to pressure their employer
Antonyms
How Disruptive
1
4.6
16
4.9
3
4.4
384
3.8
272
3.2
- Formal
61
3.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
sit-down + strike
The noun is transparently built from 'sit (down)' + 'strike' so a learner who knows 'sit', 'down' and 'strike' can infer it is a form of strike in which workers remain seated at their workplace. This is a compositional, productive English pattern (similar to 'sit-in') and the protest logic is cross-linguistically accessible, so the meaning is directly derivable from the parts.
Etymology
Sit-down strike comes from the image of workers who literally sit down at their machines and refuse to leave. By staying in place they stop production and force managers to talk, so today it means 'a protest' where workers stay at work until they get what they want.