When have industries previously gone on strike and what has it achieved?

The UK is facing the biggest outbreak of industrial action in a generation as thousands of workers across the NHS, transport, civil service and other sectors strike for better pay and conditions in the face of soaring inflation.

Union-led strike action has declined in recent decades - but this is not the first time mass walkouts have brought the country to a standstill.

From the onset of the industrial revolution, workers have been withholding their labour to bargain for more money and job security, achieving landmark gains such as eight-hour working days and equal pay for women.

But not all strikes are successful, with many resulting in a crackdown on union activity and no concessions for workers.

Often, the outcome has depended on the strength of the government at the time and public support behind the movement.

Here, Paste BN looks at some of the biggest strikes in the last 100 years or so, and how they ended.

General strike of 1926

The current wave of discontent has been likened to a de-facto "general strike" as union leaders talk up the possibility of co-ordinated action in 2023.

The last - and only time - the UK faced a general strike was in 1926.

For nine days, more than 1.5 million workers went on strike to support coal miners, whose bosses wanted to reduce pay and conditions.

The strike ended when the Trades Union Congress (TUC) called off the action without any concessions for the miners, after a court ruling that the action was illegal.

The miners were forced to accept the new terms and returned to work, while new laws were introduced to make general strikes and "sympathetic strikes" illegal.

Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968

In 1968, women sewing machinists at the Ford Motor Company plant in Dagenham, Essex, went on strike after their jobs were downgraded to unskilled, meaning they were being paid 85% of the rate paid to men.

Barbara Castle, Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity, intervened on behalf of the women and they returned to work three weeks later after their pay was raised to 92% of that of men.

The dispute was a trigger for the Equal Pay Act 1970, which made it illegal to pay women less for doing the same job as men - though not for doing work of equal value.

It was only in 1984, following a nine-week long strike and widespread solidarity action from their male co-workers, that the Ford Dagenham women won their original demand for the same pay.

Miners' strikes of the 1970s

During the 1970s, miners went on strike again for the first time since the failure of the general strike - this time with more success.

After talks over pay between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and PM Edward Heath's Conservative government broke down, the NUM called for industrial action at the start of 1972.

The action shut down coalmines, leading to power cuts and forcing the government to declare a state of emergency and three-day week to conserve electricity.

Despite the disruption, there was a great deal of public sympathy for the strikes, which came at a time of high inflation and unemployment.

Miners achieved an annual pay rise of 27% - well over the government's wage restraint policy target of 7% to 8%.

Inflation soon wiped out the gains and miners went on strike again in 1974. It led to another three-day w