Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

7 things you should know

Ending discrimination on the buses

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Greater Manchester

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Fighting wage slavery

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

The Wapping Dispute

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Playing a blinder for women

84 years of activism

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

The Trico strike for equal pay

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Clementina Black

The first female president of the TUC

Match Women’s Strike

Memories of the general strike

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Eyewitness to Cable Street

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

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

"A burning sense of what was just"

Keeping the family together

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Thirty years to equality at work

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Let Robeson Sing

Founder of the NHS

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Demanding a minimum wage

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Low Pay Commission

The man who redefined the TUC

Campaigning for recognition

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

10 things you need to know

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

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

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Fighting back against sexual harassment

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

The real-life hero from Pride

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Taking on the print barons

Five things I learnt from being a union member

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Queueing up to learn

Supporting women survivors of violence

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Wasting no time to build a movement

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

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

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Knocking on every door

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Helping girls plan for life after football

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Many routes to an education

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Fighting for permanent contracts

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Squeezing our public service professionals

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Firefighter and FBU official

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

Health and Safety

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

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

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

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Booking in time to destress

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

People don’t say no enough

Squeezing our public sector professionals

“A union is about being united and working together”

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

Five ways my union supported my transition

We turned something negative into something really positive

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

People’s March for Jobs

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

The home of the British trade union movement

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

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