Explore all stories - TUC 150 Stories

Playing a blinder for women

10 things you need to know

Greater Manchester

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

7 things you should know

Campaigning for recognition

Everyday Heroes

Poet, socialist and trade union leader

The man who redefined the TUC

The first female president of the TUC

Demanding a minimum wage

Global Solidarity

Hans Gottfurcht

How the TUC helped to keep European unionism alive during WWII

The real-life hero from Pride

Founder of the NHS

Health and Safety

Samuel Plimsoll

The sailors' hero

Health and Safety

Joint Production Committees

Protecting workers

Best foot forward – from redundancy to a shoe business

Dorothy Ratcliffe and Susan Crosby

Equal pay in Yorkshire school canteens

Apprenticeships

Championing Young Workers

Clementina Black

The great Penrhyn quarry strike

Capturing the public imagination

Kevin Horne and Barbara Jackson

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

The Jarrow March

Demanding a new deal

Thirty years to equality at work

Memories of the general strike

The pioneer behind 30 women’s trade unions

The Trico strike for equal pay

Bristol bus boycott

Bristol’s forgotten civil rights scandal

A beacon of hope at GCHQ

Trade union leader and all-round firebrand

Eyewitness to Cable Street

Fighting wage slavery

Ending discrimination on the buses

Bringing socialism to Liverpool

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

"A burning sense of what was just"

Trade unions during WWII

Building relationships and boosting morale

Ricky Tomlinson

“My innocence has been proved time and again”

Burston School Strike

The longest strike in history

The weavers strike

Success for the first all-woman strike committee

The founding of the TUC

150 years on and going strong

The Woolf’s Strike

Organising migrant workers

Let Robeson Sing

Revolutionary Rosie

Mass Strike in Dublin 1913

Dagenham Women’s Strike

How Ford’s striking women drove the Equal Pay Act

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Fighting back against sexual harassment

Disabled workers

Creating the right balance for work and family life

"We are those lions, Mr Manager.”

Chris Braithwaite

Sailor, docker and activist

The Wapping Dispute

Mary Bamber and Bessie Braddock

Like mother, like daughter

Everyday Heroes

Order of Industrial Heroism

Celebrating working heroes

Global Solidarity

Supporting Polish trade unionists

Saving Steel Workers' Pensions

Keeping the family together

Global Solidarity

The 1889 London dockworkers’ strike

Five steps to success

84 years of activism

Costing workers their jobs and their families

Disabled workers

National League of the Blind

"Justice not Charity"

Low Pay Commission

Global Solidarity

G.H. Stuart-Bunning

The International Labour Organisation

Health and Safety

Health and Safety Act 1974

Health and Safety

Making London the safest Olympics ever

Margaret Bondfield

Shop floor rebel

Oliver Kilbourn

The Pitmen Painters

Pioneering trade unionist and suffragette

Miner, socialist, pacifist, leader

Taking on the print barons

Match Women’s Strike

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Global Solidarity

From the college canteen to international leadership

Royal College of Midwives

Jillian Ireland and Sara Fripp

Singing it loud

“The classes are a great networking event.”

Five ways my union supported my transition

Pauline Carwood

"30 years ago women didn't drive trains"

“An outstanding trade unionist”

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

Many routes to an education

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

Wasting no time to build a movement

People don’t say no enough

Health and Safety

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

Alisdair Kairns

Not all glitz and glamour at the movies

Queueing up to learn

Five things I learnt from being a union member

Booking in time to destress

Canon Steven Saxby

Five reasons why faith workers need unions

Public Services

Deborah Bell and Karen McArthur

The faces behind library losses

Dudley Hackling

‘It all comes down to communication and confidence’

Winning for care workers on zero-hours

Helping girls plan for life after football

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

Musician's Union

Four reasons why musicians need unions

Apprenticeships

“An apprenticeship was a no-brainer”

Firefighter and FBU official

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

Satnam Singh Ner

Bringing diversity into the workplace

“A 200-word essay changed my life”

Millie Apedo-Amah

The vital role of a train guard

Supporting women survivors of violence

A no-nonsense approach on the shop floor

“A union is about being united and working together”

Building a culture of learning – at every level and background

Yorkshire and Humber

Lisa Greenfield

“People always want to learn”

Gail Cartwright, Midwife

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Why I came out as gay at a school assembly

Angela Rayner MP

A remarkable journey to Westminster

Knocking on every door

Health and Safety

60 seconds on a North Sea rig

Changing the conversation about mental health at work

Fighting for permanent contracts

Barry Downey, Firefighter

Squeezing our public sector professionals

Charlotte Gardner

Leading a network of 50 reps

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

Evelyn Martin MBE

A lifetime of learning

A young postie with a passion for fairness

Squeezing our public service professionals

Galvanising a community in times of strife

Health and Safety

60 seconds at Sellafield

Fighting for change at McDonalds

5 reasons for musicians to join a union

Craig Johnstone

The Churchill Cleaners: five tips to winning a dispute

We turned something negative into something really positive

Yorkshire and Humber

Jake O’Malley

Three steps to building a strong union

Show the love – hug your school!

Anne Cox, headteacher

Health and Safety

Janise Corsfield

“I’ve always been safety conscious”

“Actors have always been part of the gig economy”

Disabled workers

Changing the narrative

“Journalism was suddenly being equated with espionage”

Albert Mansbridge

Championing education for working people

People’s March for Jobs

Cricket ball makers strike

Small but mighty

Fiercely intelligent, influential and inspirational

Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone

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