Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

10 things you need to know

Founder of the NHS

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Keeping the family together

Let Robeson Sing

Low Pay Commission

The man who redefined the TUC

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Ending discrimination on the buses

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Clementina Black

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Playing a blinder for women

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

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

The first female president of the TUC

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

84 years of activism

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Fighting wage slavery

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Match Women’s Strike

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

The real-life hero from Pride

The Wapping Dispute

The Trico strike for equal pay

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Greater Manchester

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Memories of the general strike

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

7 things you should know

"A burning sense of what was just"

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Campaigning for recognition

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

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

Taking on the print barons

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Demanding a minimum wage

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Thirty years to equality at work

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Squeezing our public service professionals

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

People don’t say no enough

Firefighter and FBU official

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Galvanising a community in times of strife

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

We turned something negative into something really positive

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Supporting women survivors of violence

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

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Health and Safety

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

Squeezing our public sector professionals

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Wasting no time to build a movement

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

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Knocking on every door

Queueing up to learn

Five ways my union supported my transition

Fighting for permanent contracts

Galvanising a community in times of strife

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

A young postie with a passion for fairness

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

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

“A union is about being united and working together”

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Booking in time to destress

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Many routes to an education

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

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Helping girls plan for life after football

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

People’s March for Jobs

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

“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

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