Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

"A burning sense of what was just"

Playing a blinder for women

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Keeping the family together

84 years of activism

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Thirty years to equality at work

7 things you should know

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Let Robeson Sing

Ending discrimination on the buses

Demanding a minimum wage

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

The man who redefined the TUC

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

The Trico strike for equal pay

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Campaigning for recognition

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Clementina Black

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Memories of the general strike

The first female president of the TUC

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

10 things you need to know

Costing workers their jobs and their families

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

The Wapping Dispute

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Founder of the NHS

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Fighting wage slavery

Taking on the print barons

Greater Manchester

The real-life hero from Pride

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Low Pay Commission

Match Women’s Strike

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

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

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

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Knocking on every door

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Squeezing our public service professionals

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Queueing up to learn

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Fighting for permanent contracts

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

People don’t say no enough

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Helping girls plan for life after football

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

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

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

Firefighter and FBU official

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Five ways my union supported my transition

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Wasting no time to build a movement

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

Squeezing our public sector professionals

“A union is about being united and working together”

We turned something negative into something really positive

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

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

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Many routes to an education

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

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

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Health and Safety

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

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Supporting women survivors of violence

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Booking in time to destress

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

People’s March for Jobs

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

The home of the British trade union movement

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

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