Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

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

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

The Trico strike for equal pay

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

The first female president of the TUC

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

10 things you need to know

7 things you should know

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Low Pay Commission

Fighting wage slavery

Let Robeson Sing

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

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Memories of the general strike

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

The Wapping Dispute

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Ending discrimination on the buses

Clementina Black

Greater Manchester

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Playing a blinder for women

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

The real-life hero from Pride

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Match Women’s Strike

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

"A burning sense of what was just"

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

84 years of activism

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Campaigning for recognition

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Keeping the family together

Demanding a minimum wage

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Taking on the print barons

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Founder of the NHS

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

The man who redefined the TUC

Thirty years to equality at work

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Squeezing our public service professionals

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Many routes to an education

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Knocking on every door

People don’t say no enough

Firefighter and FBU official

Health and Safety

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

Galvanising a community in times of strife

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Galvanising a community in times of strife

“A union is about being united and working together”

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

We turned something negative into something really positive

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Fighting for permanent contracts

Queueing up to learn

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

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

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

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

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

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

Five ways my union supported my transition

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Supporting women survivors of violence

Helping girls plan for life after football

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

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

Wasting no time to build a movement

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Booking in time to destress

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

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

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