The strike is among one of the oldest and the most effective weapons of labour in their struggle with capital for securing economic justice. The basic strength of a strike lies with the labours privilege to quit work and thus brings a forced adjustment of conditions of the employment. It owes its origin to the English words Striken means to go. In common term it means to hit, impress, occur to, to quit work on a trade dispute. The literal meaning is traceable to 1768. Later on, it opined to strike of work. The basic idea of quitting work or withdrawal from work as a coercive act could be collected in the use of the word as a verb as well as an adjective. The definition and use of the word strike is been undergoing constant transformation around the general concept of stoppage of work or putting of work by employees in their economic struggle with capital.
The term strike has been defined in a large variety of branches of human knowledge, viz. etymology, sociology, political economy, law and political science
The strike has been defined under Section 2 (q) of the Industrial Disputes Act as provided—
Strike means a stoppage of work by a group of persons employed in any industry working in combination, or a refusal under a general understanding, of any number of persons who are or have been employed to continue work or to accept employment.
Cessation of Work: -
It is the most significant characteristic of the concept of a strike. It has been widely expressed as abandonment, stoppage, the omission of performance of duties of their posts, hampering or reducing normal works, hindrance to the working or suspension of work, discontinuing the employment or breaking their contract of service or refusing or failing to return to or resume employment or refusing or failing to accept an engagement for any work which they are usually employed for. As required for a strike is that there must be stoppage of work or there must be a refusal to continue to work or to accept employment by any number of persons employed for the work but the refusal must be observed or under the common understanding.
Concerted action
Another important material of the strike is concerted action. The workers must act under a common understanding. The continuation of work by a group of persons employed in any industry is a strike. Therefore, in a strike, it must be proved that there was halting of work or stoppage of work by a general understanding of it was a concerted action of the workers or there was halting of work by workers acting in groups. Stoppage of work by workers personally does not amount to strike.
