Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

84 years of activism

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Low Pay Commission

Clementina Black

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

The Trico strike for equal pay

Memories of the general strike

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Match Women’s Strike

The man who redefined the TUC

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

The Wapping Dispute

Keeping the family together

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Playing a blinder for women

The real-life hero from Pride

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Campaigning for recognition

Let Robeson Sing

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Ending discrimination on the buses

The first female president of the TUC

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

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

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

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Fighting wage slavery

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Founder of the NHS

7 things you should know

10 things you need to know

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Costing workers their jobs and their families

"A burning sense of what was just"

Thirty years to equality at work

Taking on the print barons

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Demanding a minimum wage

Greater Manchester

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

A young postie with a passion for fairness

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

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Knocking on every door

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Wasting no time to build a movement

Squeezing our public service professionals

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

“The classes are a great networking event.”

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

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

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

Queueing up to learn

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Squeezing our public sector professionals

We turned something negative into something really positive

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Many routes to an education

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Helping girls plan for life after football

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Supporting women survivors of violence

Five ways my union supported my transition

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

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

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Health and Safety

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

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

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

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Firefighter and FBU official

People don’t say no enough

Galvanising a community in times of strife

“A union is about being united and working together”

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Booking in time to destress

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

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

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

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