Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

Eyewitness to Cable Street

The first female president of the TUC

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Match Women’s Strike

Ending discrimination on the buses

Demanding a minimum wage

The real-life hero from Pride

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Greater Manchester

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

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

Let Robeson Sing

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Low Pay Commission

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Memories of the general strike

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

"A burning sense of what was just"

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

84 years of activism

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Clementina Black

Taking on the print barons

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Campaigning for recognition

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Founder of the NHS

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

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

Thirty years to equality at work

10 things you need to know

The man who redefined the TUC

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Playing a blinder for women

Fighting wage slavery

7 things you should know

Keeping the family together

The Wapping Dispute

The Trico strike for equal pay

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Helping girls plan for life after football

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Queueing up to learn

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Booking in time to destress

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Knocking on every door

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Fighting for permanent contracts

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

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Five things I learnt from being a union member

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

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

People don’t say no enough

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Firefighter and FBU official

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Squeezing our public service professionals

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Supporting women survivors of violence

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

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

Galvanising a community in times of strife

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

Five ways my union supported my transition

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Wasting no time to build a movement

Many routes to an education

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Health and Safety

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

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

We turned something negative into something really positive

“A union is about being united and working together”

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

The home of the British trade union movement

People’s March for Jobs

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

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