Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

10 things you need to know

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

"A burning sense of what was just"

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

The Wapping Dispute

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

7 things you should know

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Ending discrimination on the buses

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Memories of the general strike

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Greater Manchester

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Keeping the family together

Taking on the print barons

Demanding a minimum wage

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

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

The first female president of the TUC

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Campaigning for recognition

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Fighting wage slavery

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Low Pay Commission

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Eyewitness to Cable Street

The man who redefined the TUC

Clementina Black

Let Robeson Sing

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

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

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Playing a blinder for women

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Founder of the NHS

Match Women’s Strike

Thirty years to equality at work

The real-life hero from Pride

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

84 years of activism

A young postie with a passion for fairness

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

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Knocking on every door

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Squeezing our public service professionals

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

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

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

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Helping girls plan for life after football

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Supporting women survivors of violence

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Galvanising a community in times of strife

People don’t say no enough

Many routes to an education

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

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

Booking in time to destress

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

“A union is about being united and working together”

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Queueing up to learn

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

Fighting for permanent contracts

Firefighter and FBU official

Wasting no time to build a movement

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

We turned something negative into something really positive

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Five ways my union supported my transition

Health and Safety

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

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

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

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

People’s March for Jobs

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

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