Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

"A burning sense of what was just"

Greater Manchester

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Low Pay Commission

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

84 years of activism

The Wapping Dispute

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

Demanding a minimum wage

Keeping the family together

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Clementina Black

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

The real-life hero from Pride

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Match Women’s Strike

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Memories of the general strike

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Campaigning for recognition

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

7 things you should know

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Ending discrimination on the buses

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

Taking on the print barons

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Let Robeson Sing

Fighting wage slavery

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Playing a blinder for women

The first female president of the TUC

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

10 things you need to know

The Trico strike for equal pay

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Thirty years to equality at work

Founder of the NHS

The man who redefined the TUC

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Many routes to an education

People don’t say no enough

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

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

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

Firefighter and FBU official

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

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

We turned something negative into something really positive

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

“A union is about being united and working together”

Squeezing our public service professionals

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Fighting for permanent contracts

Booking in time to destress

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Queueing up to learn

A young postie with a passion for fairness

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Squeezing our public sector professionals

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Health and Safety

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

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Galvanising a community in times of strife

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

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

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Galvanising a community in times of strife

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Knocking on every door

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Wasting no time to build a movement

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Supporting women survivors of violence

Five ways my union supported my transition

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Helping girls plan for life after football

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

The home of the British trade union movement

People’s March for Jobs

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

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