Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The 'national stoppage' was authorized by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) at one minute to midnight on Monday, May 3, 1926. 1 million miners were already out, and now railway workers, dockers, road transport workers, printers, and gas and electricity workers refused to work. . . . The General Strike was the culmination of a long history of bitter industrial relations in the mines. When wages were cut and the working day was lengthened, the TUC promised action. . . . The government presented the strike as a challenge to democracy, and the TUC feared it might turn to revolutionary violence. The strike remained solid, but on May 12 the TUC called it off, leaving the miners to fight on alone. The government hammered home its victory in 1927 by declaring future general strikes illegal." [Furtado: 1001 Days]