Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

The real-life hero from Pride

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

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

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Fighting wage slavery

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Playing a blinder for women

Match Women’s Strike

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

"A burning sense of what was just"

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Demanding a minimum wage

Thirty years to equality at work

Keeping the family together

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

The man who redefined the TUC

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Memories of the general strike

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Ending discrimination on the buses

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Taking on the print barons

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Campaigning for recognition

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

84 years of activism

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Clementina Black

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

10 things you need to know

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Founder of the NHS

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Greater Manchester

Low Pay Commission

The Wapping Dispute

The Trico strike for equal pay

Costing workers their jobs and their families

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

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

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

7 things you should know

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Let Robeson Sing

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

The first female president of the TUC

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

We turned something negative into something really positive

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

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

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

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

Helping girls plan for life after football

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

Booking in time to destress

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

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

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Five ways my union supported my transition

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Wasting no time to build a movement

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

“A union is about being united and working together”

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Supporting women survivors of violence

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

People don’t say no enough

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Knocking on every door

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Fighting for permanent contracts

Queueing up to learn

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Squeezing our public service professionals

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Many routes to an education

Firefighter and FBU official

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Health and Safety

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

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

The home of the British trade union movement

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

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