Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

Low Pay Commission

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

10 things you need to know

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Eyewitness to Cable Street

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Clementina Black

The Trico strike for equal pay

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

"We knew we had to set up our own union"

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Ending discrimination on the buses

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

“I ran for my life through a field, horses chasing me.”

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Founder of the NHS

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Demanding a minimum wage

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Fighting wage slavery

"A burning sense of what was just"

Memories of the general strike

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Greater Manchester

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

“Let’s open up the world and bring light and knowledge in”

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

The real-life hero from Pride

Keeping the family together

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Campaigning for recognition

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Thirty years to equality at work

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

The man who redefined the TUC

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Match Women’s Strike

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

The Wapping Dispute

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

The first female president of the TUC

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Playing a blinder for women

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

84 years of activism

7 things you should know

Let Robeson Sing

Costing workers their jobs and their families

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Taking on the print barons

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Supporting women survivors of violence

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Firefighter and FBU official

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Booking in time to destress

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Wasting no time to build a movement

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Health and Safety

“We’ll never know how many lives we’ve saved”

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Many routes to an education

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

“I want to make sure young footballers don’t go through what I had to”

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Fighting for permanent contracts

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Knocking on every door

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

“It’s been a sacrifice but it was worth it”

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Squeezing our public service professionals

People don’t say no enough

Queueing up to learn

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Helping girls plan for life after football

Five ways my union supported my transition

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

"Without my union, I wouldn't have survived"

When we ‘do the business’ for our members, we can build a stronger union

A young postie with a passion for fairness

“A union is about being united and working together”

Galvanising a community in times of strife

“It’s a privilege to be involved with trade unions”

We turned something negative into something really positive

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

People’s March for Jobs

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

The home of the British trade union movement

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

14 stories

Fighting for the future

4 stories

Disabled Workers

Challenging stereotypes

9 stories

Fighting for racial equality

6 stories

A new deal for working people

Trade unionists demanding change

9 stories

International Women’s Day

Women trade unionists winning equal pay

4 stories

End the public sector pay squeeze

Public sector workers explain the impact of pay cuts

7 stories

100 years of suffrage

Women trade unionists fighting for equality

11 stories

Building safer workplaces

Protecting workers' health and safety

8 stories

Learning with your union

Because everyone has the right to an education

7 stories

Celebrating the work of reps and members

14 stories

Working peoples' last resort