Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

Campaigning for recognition

Greater Manchester

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

"A burning sense of what was just"

Let Robeson Sing

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

Playing a blinder for women

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

7 things you should know

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Thirty years to equality at work

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Clementina Black

Ending discrimination on the buses

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

The Wapping Dispute

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

The Trico strike for equal pay

Fighting wage slavery

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

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

10 things you need to know

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Fighting back against sexual harassment

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Keeping the family together

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

The first female president of the TUC

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

The man who redefined the TUC

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Eyewitness to Cable Street

84 years of activism

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Founder of the NHS

Taking on the print barons

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Low Pay Commission

The real-life hero from Pride

Match Women’s Strike

Demanding a minimum wage

Memories of the general strike

“A union is about being united and working together”

Many routes to an education

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Firefighter and FBU official

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Booking in time to destress

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

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

“An outstanding trade unionist”

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Squeezing our public service professionals

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Supporting women survivors of violence

Helping girls plan for life after football

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

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

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Queueing up to learn

Knocking on every door

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Five ways my union supported my transition

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

Health and Safety

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

People don’t say no enough

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

We turned something negative into something really positive

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Wasting no time to build a movement

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

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Fighting for permanent contracts

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

The home of the British trade union movement

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

People’s March for Jobs

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

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