pickets
striking workers
TRANSLATION
pickets = Streikposten, Streikende --- GOOGLE INDEX pickets: approximately 4,500,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
PICKETS start month-long strike
(BBC - Business News Headline)
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Elsewhere in Johannesburg striking teachers threw bricks and stones at police, while nurses tore down a gate at one hospital as PICKETS struggled to block colleagues who wanted to go to work as normal.
(The London Independent)
(BBC - Business News Headline)
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Elsewhere in Johannesburg striking teachers threw bricks and stones at police, while nurses tore down a gate at one hospital as PICKETS struggled to block colleagues who wanted to go to work as normal.
(The London Independent)
Did you
know?
pickets
noun
- group of workers who protest outside a building to prevent other workers from going inside, especially because they have a disagreement with their employers
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
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The word picket is from the French "piquer" (to pierce) and originally referred to a pointed stake used by armies as a defence against cavalry units. It then developed the sense of "troops posted to watch for the enemy."
In the mid 19th century picket took on the additional meaning of striking workers posted in front of a factory to prevent other works from entering. This likely derived from the wooden stakes that were (and still are) used to carry around protest signs by striking workers.
Picket, in the sense of striking workers, is also used as a verb (Workers have been picketing in front of the factory since Monday). When groups of striking workers line up to protest, this is often referred to as a "picket line." Pickets can also be used to describe non-workers who try to interrupt a business or operation or block projects such as the building of a new airport runway for instance.
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"The trains are running late today because of the pickets demonstrating at the main station."
noun
- group of workers who protest outside a building to prevent other workers from going inside, especially because they have a disagreement with their employers
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
The word picket is from the French "piquer" (to pierce) and originally referred to a pointed stake used by armies as a defence against cavalry units. It then developed the sense of "troops posted to watch for the enemy."
In the mid 19th century picket took on the additional meaning of striking workers posted in front of a factory to prevent other works from entering. This likely derived from the wooden stakes that were (and still are) used to carry around protest signs by striking workers.
Picket, in the sense of striking workers, is also used as a verb (Workers have been picketing in front of the factory since Monday). When groups of striking workers line up to protest, this is often referred to as a "picket line." Pickets can also be used to describe non-workers who try to interrupt a business or operation or block projects such as the building of a new airport runway for instance.
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"The trains are running late today because of the pickets demonstrating at the main station."
