Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

84 years of activism

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

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Playing a blinder for women

Greater Manchester

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

10 things you need to know

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Founder of the NHS

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Fighting wage slavery

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Low Pay Commission

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

The Trico strike for equal pay

Eyewitness to Cable Street

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

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

Fighting back against sexual harassment

The Wapping Dispute

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Match Women’s Strike

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Demanding a minimum wage

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Thirty years to equality at work

The man who redefined the TUC

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Clementina Black

Taking on the print barons

The real-life hero from Pride

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Let Robeson Sing

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

"A burning sense of what was just"

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Keeping the family together

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

7 things you should know

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Ending discrimination on the buses

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

The first female president of the TUC

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Memories of the general strike

Campaigning for recognition

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

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

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Galvanising a community in times of strife

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Wasting no time to build a movement

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Supporting women survivors of violence

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

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

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

“A union is about being united and working together”

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Queueing up to learn

Booking in time to destress

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Many routes to an education

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Firefighter and FBU official

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

Knocking on every door

Health and Safety

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

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

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

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Five ways my union supported my transition

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

We turned something negative into something really positive

People don’t say no enough

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Fighting for permanent contracts

Helping girls plan for life after football

Squeezing our public service professionals

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

People’s March for Jobs

The home of the British trade union movement

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