Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

10 things you need to know

Founder of the NHS

7 things you should know

Let Robeson Sing

The man who redefined the TUC

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

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

"A burning sense of what was just"

Clementina Black

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Memories of the general strike

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Ending discrimination on the buses

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Demanding a minimum wage

Playing a blinder for women

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Taking on the print barons

Campaigning for recognition

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

The real-life hero from Pride

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Match Women’s Strike

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Thirty years to equality at work

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

The Trico strike for equal pay

Greater Manchester

Fighting wage slavery

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Costing workers their jobs and their families

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

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

The first female president of the TUC

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

84 years of activism

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

The Wapping Dispute

Low Pay Commission

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Keeping the family together

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Knocking on every door

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

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”

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Fighting for permanent contracts

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Squeezing our public service professionals

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

We turned something negative into something really positive

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Wasting no time to build a movement

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Booking in time to destress

Queueing up to learn

Many routes to an education

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

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

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

People don’t say no enough

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Helping girls plan for life after football

“The classes are a great networking event.”

“A union is about being united and working together”

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Galvanising a community in times of strife

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Squeezing our public sector professionals

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

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

Health and Safety

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

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

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

Supporting women survivors of violence

Five ways my union supported my transition

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

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Firefighter and FBU official

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

The home of the British trade union movement

People’s March for Jobs

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