Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

Fighting wage slavery

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

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

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Low Pay Commission

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Founder of the NHS

"A burning sense of what was just"

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Match Women’s Strike

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Clementina Black

Let Robeson Sing

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Demanding a minimum wage

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Keeping the family together

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

7 things you should know

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

The man who redefined the TUC

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Ending discrimination on the buses

Memories of the general strike

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Campaigning for recognition

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Taking on the print barons

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

The Trico strike for equal pay

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

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

The Wapping Dispute

Playing a blinder for women

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

10 things you need to know

The first female president of the TUC

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Thirty years to equality at work

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Greater Manchester

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

The real-life hero from Pride

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

84 years of activism

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Health and Safety

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

Squeezing our public service professionals

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Queueing up to learn

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Booking in time to destress

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Knocking on every door

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

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

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

Five ways my union supported my transition

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Firefighter and FBU official

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Supporting women survivors of violence

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Many routes to an education

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

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

People don’t say no enough

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Five things I learnt from being a union member

“A union is about being united and working together”

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

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

We turned something negative into something really positive

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Helping girls plan for life after football

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Wasting no time to build a movement

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Fighting for permanent contracts

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Galvanising a community in times of strife

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

The home of the British trade union movement

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

People’s March for Jobs

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

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