Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Demanding a minimum wage

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Clementina Black

The man who redefined the TUC

7 things you should know

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Playing a blinder for women

Campaigning for recognition

Keeping the family together

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

The Trico strike for equal pay

Greater Manchester

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

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

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

"A burning sense of what was just"

Fighting wage slavery

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

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

Fighting back against sexual harassment

84 years of activism

The first female president of the TUC

Ending discrimination on the buses

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Thirty years to equality at work

Low Pay Commission

Match Women’s Strike

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

The Wapping Dispute

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

The real-life hero from Pride

Taking on the print barons

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Founder of the NHS

Let Robeson Sing

Costing workers their jobs and their families

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

10 things you need to know

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Memories of the general strike

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

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

Supporting women survivors of violence

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Queueing up to learn

Health and Safety

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

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

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

“An outstanding trade unionist”

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

Knocking on every door

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Many routes to an education

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

People don’t say no enough

Booking in time to destress

Squeezing our public service professionals

We turned something negative into something really positive

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

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Helping girls plan for life after football

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Five ways my union supported my transition

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Wasting no time to build a movement

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

“A union is about being united and working together”

Firefighter and FBU official

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Fighting for permanent contracts

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

The home of the British trade union movement

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

People’s March for Jobs

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

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