Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Taking on the print barons

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

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

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Keeping the family together

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Match Women’s Strike

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Fighting wage slavery

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

The real-life hero from Pride

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

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

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Low Pay Commission

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

The Wapping Dispute

The Trico strike for equal pay

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Thirty years to equality at work

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Memories of the general strike

Playing a blinder for women

The man who redefined the TUC

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

84 years of activism

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Founder of the NHS

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Let Robeson Sing

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

10 things you need to know

Greater Manchester

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Campaigning for recognition

7 things you should know

Demanding a minimum wage

The first female president of the TUC

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

"A burning sense of what was just"

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Ending discrimination on the buses

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Clementina Black

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

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

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Helping girls plan for life after football

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

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

“A union is about being united and working together”

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

We turned something negative into something really positive

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

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Supporting women survivors of violence

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Many routes to an education

Firefighter and FBU official

People don’t say no enough

Squeezing our public service professionals

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Fighting for permanent contracts

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Wasting no time to build a movement

Health and Safety

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

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Queueing up to learn

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Knocking on every door

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Booking in time to destress

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Five ways my union supported my transition

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

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

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

People’s March for Jobs

The home of the British trade union movement

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