Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

7 things you should know

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

Memories of the general strike

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

10 things you need to know

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

The Trico strike for equal pay

Greater Manchester

Fighting wage slavery

84 years of activism

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

The first female president of the TUC

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Keeping the family together

Founder of the NHS

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

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

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

The Wapping Dispute

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

Ending discrimination on the buses

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

Campaigning for recognition

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Let Robeson Sing

Playing a blinder for women

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

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

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Match Women’s Strike

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

Low Pay Commission

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Taking on the print barons

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

"A burning sense of what was just"

Thirty years to equality at work

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

The man who redefined the TUC

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Clementina Black

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

The real-life hero from Pride

Demanding a minimum wage

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Health and Safety

Alan Knight MBE

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

“The classes are a great networking event.”

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

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

We turned something negative into something really positive

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Five ways my union supported my transition

Queueing up to learn

Knocking on every door

Booking in time to destress

Supporting women survivors of violence

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Firefighter and FBU official

Helping girls plan for life after football

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

People don’t say no enough

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

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

Wasting no time to build a movement

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

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Fighting for change at McDonalds

Squeezing our public service professionals

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Fighting for permanent contracts

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

“An outstanding trade unionist”

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Many routes to an education

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

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

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

“A union is about being united and working together”

Health and Safety

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

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

People’s March for Jobs

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

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