Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

Clementina Black

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

The first female president of the TUC

Low Pay Commission

Fighting wage slavery

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

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

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Thirty years to equality at work

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Greater Manchester

Fighting back against sexual harassment

The Trico strike for equal pay

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

The man who redefined the TUC

Ending discrimination on the buses

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

The real-life hero from Pride

Keeping the family together

Let Robeson Sing

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

"A burning sense of what was just"

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Match Women’s Strike

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Campaigning for recognition

Taking on the print barons

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Founder of the NHS

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

7 things you should know

Demanding a minimum wage

Memories of the general strike

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

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

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

The Wapping Dispute

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

10 things you need to know

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

84 years of activism

Playing a blinder for women

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

We turned something negative into something really positive

Five ways my union supported my transition

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Squeezing our public service professionals

People don’t say no enough

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

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

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Many routes to an education

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

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

Health and Safety

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

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

Firefighter and FBU official

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Queueing up to learn

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Helping girls plan for life after football

Fighting for change at McDonalds

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Wasting no time to build a movement

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Knocking on every door

Galvanising a community in times of strife

“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”

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

“A union is about being united and working together”

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Fighting for permanent contracts

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

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Supporting women survivors of violence

Booking in time to destress

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

People’s March for Jobs

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

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