Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

The real-life hero from Pride

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Memories of the general strike

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

84 years of activism

10 things you need to know

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

7 things you should know

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

The first female president of the TUC

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Taking on the print barons

Fighting wage slavery

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Keeping the family together

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Demanding a minimum wage

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

The Wapping Dispute

Ending discrimination on the buses

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Low Pay Commission

Playing a blinder for women

Founder of the NHS

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

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Thirty years to equality at work

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Clementina Black

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Campaigning for recognition

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Greater Manchester

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

"A burning sense of what was just"

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Match Women’s Strike

The man who redefined the TUC

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

Let Robeson Sing

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

Queueing up to learn

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Health and Safety

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

People don’t say no enough

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Helping girls plan for life after football

We turned something negative into something really positive

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

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

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

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Five things I learnt from being a union member

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

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Supporting women survivors of violence

Knocking on every door

Galvanising a community in times of strife

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Fighting for permanent contracts

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Booking in time to destress

Five ways my union supported my transition

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

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

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Firefighter and FBU official

Squeezing our public service professionals

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

“A union is about being united and working together”

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Many routes to an education

Wasting no time to build a movement

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

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