Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

"A burning sense of what was just"

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

84 years of activism

Playing a blinder for women

Low Pay Commission

Founder of the NHS

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

The real-life hero from Pride

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

7 things you should know

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

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

The Trico strike for equal pay

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Fighting wage slavery

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Clementina Black

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

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

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

The first female president of the TUC

Thirty years to equality at work

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Let Robeson Sing

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Match Women’s Strike

Costing workers their jobs and their families

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

The Wapping Dispute

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Campaigning for recognition

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

10 things you need to know

Greater Manchester

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Ending discrimination on the buses

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Keeping the family together

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

The man who redefined the TUC

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Memories of the general strike

Taking on the print barons

Demanding a minimum wage

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Queueing up to learn

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

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Fighting for permanent contracts

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Galvanising a community in times of strife

People don’t say no enough

Many routes to an education

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

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

Firefighter and FBU official

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Knocking on every door

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

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

“A union is about being united and working together”

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

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Helping girls plan for life after football

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Galvanising a community in times of strife

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

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Wasting no time to build a movement

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

We turned something negative into something really positive

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Five ways my union supported my transition

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Booking in time to destress

Squeezing our public service professionals

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

Supporting women survivors of violence

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

The home of the British trade union movement

People’s March for Jobs

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

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