Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

The real-life hero from Pride

Demanding a minimum wage

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

The man who redefined the TUC

Thirty years to equality at work

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Taking on the print barons

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

"A burning sense of what was just"

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Ending discrimination on the buses

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

10 things you need to know

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

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Clementina Black

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

The first female president of the TUC

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Keeping the family together

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

7 things you should know

84 years of activism

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Greater Manchester

Memories of the general strike

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Playing a blinder for women

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

The Trico strike for equal pay

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Let Robeson Sing

Low Pay Commission

Campaigning for recognition

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

The Wapping Dispute

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

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

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Founder of the NHS

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Fighting wage slavery

Match Women’s Strike

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Firefighter and FBU official

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Wasting no time to build a movement

Five ways my union supported my transition

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

People don’t say no enough

Booking in time to destress

Fighting for permanent contracts

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Many routes to an education

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

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

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Helping girls plan for life after football

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

A young postie with a passion for fairness

“An outstanding trade unionist”

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

Knocking on every door

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Health and Safety

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

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

“A union is about being united and working together”

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

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

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

Supporting women survivors of violence

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Queueing up to learn

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

We turned something negative into something really positive

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Squeezing our public service professionals

Squeezing our public sector professionals

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

People’s March for Jobs

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

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