Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

Demanding a minimum wage

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

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

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

"A burning sense of what was just"

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Playing a blinder for women

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Match Women’s Strike

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Clementina Black

Fighting wage slavery

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Memories of the general strike

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Let Robeson Sing

84 years of activism

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Campaigning for recognition

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Founder of the NHS

Ending discrimination on the buses

The first female president of the TUC

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Greater Manchester

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Low Pay Commission

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Taking on the print barons

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

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

7 things you should know

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Thirty years to equality at work

The real-life hero from Pride

The man who redefined the TUC

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

10 things you need to know

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

The Trico strike for equal pay

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

The Wapping Dispute

Keeping the family together

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Wasting no time to build a movement

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

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

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Barry Downey, Firefighter

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”

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Health and Safety

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

Knocking on every door

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

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

Booking in time to destress

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

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

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Helping girls plan for life after football

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Five ways my union supported my transition

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Supporting women survivors of violence

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Fighting for change at McDonalds

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Many routes to an education

Fighting for permanent contracts

People don’t say no enough

Firefighter and FBU official

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Queueing up to learn

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

“A union is about being united and working together”

We turned something negative into something really positive

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Squeezing our public service professionals

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

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

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

People’s March for Jobs

The home of the British trade union movement

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

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