TUC 150 photo resources

To celebrate the anniversary, TUC has pulled together 150 stories from over the years. These are snapshots of trade unionists whose stories will surprise, move and inspire you.

Visit the 150 voices project site.

On this page

You will find a number of photographs that relate to these stories, and which are available to download and publish in relevant content.

Click on the thumbnail to download a full size JPEG image.

Credit for all images on this page: TUC Library Collections, London Metropolitan University

Old pamphlets and posters

• Which is correct? - TUC recruitment poster,1937
• Keep up your end - TUC recruitment poster, 1934
• Do men call the tune in your office? - poster 1980s
• Plebs, June 1926
• National Insurance Act, 1911

• Trade union recruitment poster in several languages produced by the TUC South East Regional Council and the Joint Trade Union Committee on Racialism in the East End. Artist Dan Jones.
• Nobody should have to put up with discrimination - NATFHE poster, c. 1995
• National and Local Government Officers’ Association poster ‘Lesbian and Gay Rights - NALGO fighting against prejudice’.
• 'Welcome to mini skirts but not to mini wages join the fight for equal pay the A.E.F. way' poster issued by the Amalgamated Union of Engineering and Foundry Workers and printed in their newspaper 'The Way for Women and Youth', December 1968
• This pamphlet, subtitled "A proposal for the national endowment of motherhood", was produced by the Family Endowment Committee in 1918. The members of the Committee were K.D. Courtney, H.N. Brailsford, Eleanor Rathbone, Maude Royden, Mary Stocks, Elinor Burns and Emile Burns. The pamphlet congratulates the women bus conductors on their successful equal pay strike, which it suggests will end the payment of a 'family wage' to male workers. To provide an independent income for mothers without paid employment and a recognition of the value of mothers' work, it proposes a family allowances scheme, payable to both married and unmarried mothers.
• Recruitment poster produced by the Transport and General Workers' Union. 1978

More from the TUC archive

Credit for images in this section: TUC Library Collections, London Metropolitan University

• Mechanics' Institute, Princess Street, Manchester where the first Trade Union Congress was held from 2-6 June, 1868. Built in 1854 as a centre for working class, adult education it offered a wide range of evening classes in English grammar, writing, reading, music, arithmetic, Latin and other languages. It was also the birthplace of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) and the Cooperative Insurance Society. The building, which is Grade II listed now houses the Mechanics Institute Trust (offering a conference and events venue) and part of the Peoples History Museum.
• Match Workers' Strike Committee, 1888. Herbert Burrows and Annie Besant are top centre
• Dewsbury Heavy Woollen Union Committee, 1875 The 1875 strike by Dewsbury woollen weavers arose from a concerted attempt by the newly established employers' association to cut wages by 10%. Three weavers - Hannah Wood, Kate Conran with Ann Ellis as secretary - formed a strike committee which with the aid of Women's Trade Union League sympathisers managed to raise a strike fund of £1200 in just one month. The Committee appealed for unity between men and women workers and after 8 weeks reached a satisfactory settlement, forming the Dewsbury and District Heavy Woollen Weavers Association. This was the first union to be permanently established in the heavy woollen section of the textile industry and it became eventually the General Union of Textile Workers.
• Explosion at Roberts, Dale and Co. chemical works, 22 June 1887 The factory, situated in a densely populated area was producing picric acid for dying. Picric powder was used in blasting. Fortunately, due to Queen Victoria's Jubilee celebrations, there were few people in the factory or the vicinity at the time, although one worker was killed. Although there were no warning notices about the danger of explosive chemicals the court put the blame on a labourer for smoking a pipe and the company received only a rebuke for not being aware of the chemical properties of picric acid. There was no compensation paid to the family of the man killed in the disaster.
• Socialist soup van in Liverpool, 1894 This converted 'gypsy' caravan travelled around Liverpool in the winter selling bowls of soup for a farthing to the poor and unemployed. It also acted as a billboard for posters advertising the Clarion newspaper and promoting Socialism. Joseph Goodman, a member of the Social Democratic Federation is shown standing in the centre of the photograph. The caravan was in the charge of R.T. Manson, organiser of the Liverpool Unemployed Association. By 1894, 40% of Liverpool's population were estimated to be living "below the poverty line". In the summer, the caravan was part of the Clarion Camp at Tabley Brook, near Knutsford. In 1896, the same van was used for a Clarion Women's Van Tour organising open air meetings in rural areas. The Clarion Van continued touring until 1929.