Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

10 things you need to know

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

"A burning sense of what was just"

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Fighting wage slavery

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Fighting back against sexual harassment

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

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Founder of the NHS

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

The first female president of the TUC

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Keeping the family together

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Playing a blinder for women

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

The Wapping Dispute

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Memories of the general strike

The man who redefined the TUC

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

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

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Campaigning for recognition

Ending discrimination on the buses

Taking on the print barons

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

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 Trico strike for equal pay

Let Robeson Sing

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Thirty years to equality at work

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Match Women’s Strike

Low Pay Commission

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Demanding a minimum wage

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Clementina Black

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

7 things you should know

84 years of activism

The real-life hero from Pride

Greater Manchester

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Knocking on every door

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

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

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

We turned something negative into something really positive

Helping girls plan for life after football

“A union is about being united and working together”

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

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

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Supporting women survivors of violence

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Fighting for permanent contracts

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Many routes to an education

Firefighter and FBU official

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Galvanising a community in times of strife

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Booking in time to destress

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Queueing up to learn

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Fighting for change at McDonalds

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

People don’t say no enough

Squeezing our public service professionals

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”

Squeezing our public sector professionals

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

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Health and Safety

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

Five ways my union supported my transition

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

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

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Wasting no time to build a movement

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

The home of the British trade union movement

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

People’s March for Jobs

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