Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

The real-life hero from Pride

10 things you need to know

Founder of the NHS

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

The first female president of the TUC

Demanding a minimum wage

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Greater Manchester

Low Pay Commission

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Fighting wage slavery

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

7 things you should know

Clementina Black

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Let Robeson Sing

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

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

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

The man who redefined the TUC

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Ending discrimination on the buses

Taking on the print barons

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

84 years of activism

Campaigning for recognition

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

"A burning sense of what was just"

Playing a blinder for women

Memories of the general strike

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

The Wapping Dispute

Thirty years to equality at work

The Trico strike for equal pay

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Match Women’s Strike

Keeping the family together

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

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

Supporting women survivors of violence

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Queueing up to learn

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Helping girls plan for life after football

“An outstanding trade unionist”

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

People don’t say no enough

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Squeezing our public service professionals

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

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

“A union is about being united and working together”

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

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Firefighter and FBU official

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Fighting for permanent contracts

Booking in time to destress

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

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

We turned something negative into something really positive

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Five ways my union supported my transition

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Wasting no time to build a movement

Health and Safety

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

Many routes to an education

Knocking on every door

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

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

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

The home of the British trade union movement

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

People’s March for Jobs

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

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