Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Clementina Black

The man who redefined the TUC

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

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

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Ending discrimination on the buses

The Wapping Dispute

Memories of the general strike

Campaigning for recognition

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Founder of the NHS

Thirty years to equality at work

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

"A burning sense of what was just"

The real-life hero from Pride

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Greater Manchester

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Keeping the family together

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

The Trico strike for equal pay

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Demanding a minimum wage

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Playing a blinder for women

Fighting wage slavery

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

7 things you should know

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

The first female president of the TUC

10 things you need to know

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Let Robeson Sing

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Taking on the print barons

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Low Pay Commission

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Match Women’s Strike

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Costing workers their jobs and their families

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

84 years of activism

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Supporting women survivors of violence

Fighting for permanent contracts

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Five ways my union supported my transition

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

Galvanising a community in times of strife

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Firefighter and FBU official

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

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

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

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

Booking in time to destress

“A union is about being united and working together”

People don’t say no enough

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Galvanising a community in times of strife

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

We turned something negative into something really positive

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Health and Safety

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

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

A young postie with a passion for fairness

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Queueing up to learn

Many routes to an education

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Helping girls plan for life after football

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Wasting no time to build a movement

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Knocking on every door

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Squeezing our public service professionals

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

People’s March for Jobs

The home of the British trade union movement

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

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