Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Playing a blinder for women

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Keeping the family together

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Greater Manchester

10 things you need to know

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

The Wapping Dispute

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Campaigning for recognition

Founder of the NHS

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

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

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

The first female president of the TUC

Demanding a minimum wage

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

"A burning sense of what was just"

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

The real-life hero from Pride

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Let Robeson Sing

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

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

Match Women’s Strike

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

7 things you should know

84 years of activism

Clementina Black

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

The Trico strike for equal pay

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Taking on the print barons

Fighting back against sexual harassment

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Ending discrimination on the buses

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Thirty years to equality at work

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Memories of the general strike

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Fighting wage slavery

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Low Pay Commission

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

The man who redefined the TUC

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Booking in time to destress

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Queueing up to learn

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Five ways my union supported my transition

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

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

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

We turned something negative into something really positive

Squeezing our public service professionals

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Knocking on every door

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

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

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

People don’t say no enough

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Firefighter and FBU official

Helping girls plan for life after football

Health and Safety

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

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

“A union is about being united and working together”

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

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

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

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

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Many routes to an education

Supporting women survivors of violence

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Wasting no time to build a movement

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Fighting for permanent contracts

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Galvanising a community in times of strife

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

People’s March for Jobs

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

The home of the British trade union movement

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

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