Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

The real-life hero from Pride

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Thirty years to equality at work

Fighting wage slavery

Let Robeson Sing

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

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

The man who redefined the TUC

84 years of activism

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Eyewitness to Cable Street

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

The Trico strike for equal pay

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Playing a blinder for women

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Demanding a minimum wage

Keeping the family together

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Match Women’s Strike

10 things you need to know

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Clementina Black

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

Low Pay Commission

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Ending discrimination on the buses

Greater Manchester

Founder of the NHS

The Wapping Dispute

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

The first female president of the TUC

Fighting back against sexual harassment

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Memories of the general strike

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Taking on the print barons

Campaigning for recognition

7 things you should know

"A burning sense of what was just"

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Health and Safety

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

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Firefighter and FBU official

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Many routes to an education

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

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

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

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

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

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

People don’t say no enough

We turned something negative into something really positive

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Fighting for change at McDonalds

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Knocking on every door

Queueing up to learn

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Fighting for permanent contracts

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Squeezing our public service professionals

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Five ways my union supported my transition

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

“A union is about being united and working together”

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Booking in time to destress

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Supporting women survivors of violence

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Helping girls plan for life after football

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Five things I learnt from being a union member

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Wasting no time to build a movement

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

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

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

The home of the British trade union movement

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

People’s March for Jobs

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