Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

The man who redefined the TUC

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Taking on the print barons

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Campaigning for recognition

"A burning sense of what was just"

10 things you need to know

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

The first female president of the TUC

The Trico strike for equal pay

Memories of the general strike

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Fighting back against sexual harassment

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

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Keeping the family together

Thirty years to equality at work

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

7 things you should know

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Fighting wage slavery

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

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

Clementina Black

Playing a blinder for women

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Let Robeson Sing

Greater Manchester

84 years of activism

Ending discrimination on the buses

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

The Wapping Dispute

Demanding a minimum wage

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Founder of the NHS

Match Women’s Strike

Low Pay Commission

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

The real-life hero from Pride

Knocking on every door

Firefighter and FBU official

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Health and Safety

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

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Five ways my union supported my transition

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

We turned something negative into something really positive

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Helping girls plan for life after football

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

People don’t say no enough

Fighting for permanent contracts

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Queueing up to learn

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Supporting women survivors of violence

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

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

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

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Many routes to an education

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

“A union is about being united and working together”

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Booking in time to destress

Wasting no time to build a movement

Squeezing our public service professionals

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

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

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

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

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

The home of the British trade union movement

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

People’s March for Jobs

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