Legal Definitions - general strike

A general strike is a widespread work stoppage involving employees from multiple different industries or sectors, often across an entire city, region, or even a whole country. Unlike a typical strike that focuses on a single employer or industry to achieve specific labor demands, a general strike aims to exert significant economic and social pressure to achieve broader political, economic, or social objectives.

Here are some examples to illustrate this concept:

• Imagine a major metropolitan area where public transportation workers, sanitation employees, and factory laborers all simultaneously cease working for a day. Their collective action is not directed at their individual employers for better wages, but rather to protest a newly proposed city ordinance that they believe unfairly impacts low-income families. This coordinated shutdown across diverse sectors of the city's economy would constitute a general strike, as it aims for a broader social policy change rather than specific workplace demands.

• Consider a scenario in a country facing severe economic austerity measures. Teachers, healthcare professionals, and civil servants across the nation coordinate a simultaneous work stoppage. Their goal is to pressure the national government to reverse its budget cuts, which they argue are harming public services. This nationwide cessation of work by various public sector employees, targeting government policy, exemplifies a general strike.

• In a particular agricultural region, workers from farms, food processing plants, and local transportation services all decide to walk off their jobs at the same time. Their unified action is a protest against a proposed state law that would significantly weaken environmental protections for local waterways, which they believe would harm their communities and livelihoods. This regional, cross-sectoral work stoppage, aimed at influencing specific legislation, would be considered a general strike.