Conference 2025

The third Troublemakers At Work conference will take place in central Manchester on Saturday 26 July 2025.

Troublemakers 2025 Conference - 26th July 2025 in Manchester

Join hundreds of other workers to share experiences and learn from each other: from organising from scratch or reviving a moribund union to resisting a rotten deal or winning a strike. If you are organising at work or struggling to overcome the barriers to doing so, this conference is for you. Our conferences are participatory. Our point of view is of the union rank and file, meaning grassroots workers rather than those employed by unions. The unions belong to the workers – we don’t need people telling us what to think or do.

The conference will be held at Central Hall, Oldham Street, Manchester, M1 1JQ and at nearby Sacha’s Hotel, 12 Tib St, Back Piccadilly, M4 1SH.

Book your tickets now.

The Troublemakers Team is developing the programme and the current draft includes:

  • An opening session with everyone together about struggle in the workplace, where we hear from workers involved in economic and political struggles at work
  • Breakouts by industry
  • Organising from scratch: what you can do in the workplace before you’ve won union recognition
  • How the US labour movement is resisting the far right
  • Fighting for a 4-day week
  • How to win when employers aren’t the decision makers (e.g. when politicians hold the purse strings, there is outsourcing or subcontracting).
  • Organising skills
  • How to run a strike (e.g. how to win a ballot, effective picket lines, building solidarity)
  • The threat of the far right (e.g. understanding the far-right attack on jobs, solidarity with workers fighting far-right attacks internationally, the impact of the far right in British workplaces)
  • Building equality from below (fighting discrimination in the workplace and how to relate to employer diversity networks)
  • Precarious workers (e.g. organising migrant workers, possibilities for workers in the gig economy, learning from previous actions)
  • How to win a strike
  • A closing session with key lessons from the day and open discussion

You can also:

Venues

We have two venues for the Conference (map here). We have not yet confirmed a venue for the after party.

Main Venue: Central Hall, Oldham Street, Manchester, M1 1JQ GB.
(also includes a room which can be used as a prayer room, and a quiet room).

Second Venue: Britannia Sacha’s Hotel, 12 Tib St, Back Piccadilly, Manchester M4 1SH.
(0.1 miles from Central Hall).

Financial Support, Childcare and Accessibility

We are working to make the conference accessible, diverse and inclusive. We have wheelchair-accessible venues, subtitles in the two largest rooms, COVID air filters in some rooms, a quiet room, and parts of the conference which can be joined online. We will have a team of volunteers on the day who can help out, for example with finding rooms. We recognise that there also are financial barriers to taking part – particularly for those travelling furthest – and have a limited budget to financially support attendees.

We have booked free, professional childcare at the conference. If you want to use this please book in good time. We recognise that some parents prefer to make their own arrangements. That could include a range of things from paying a childminder to providing some money so that a family member can take your kids out for the day. If you need financial support (including for childcare) please complete and return this form as soon as possible. If you have other accessibility needs, please let us know on the form when you book your ticket.

To keep the event safe for everyone, we encourage all attendees to take a COVID test before coming, and to wear a mask if you are comfortable doing so.

Previous conferences

You can get a feel for the event from our 2023 and 2024 conferences, or from this video from our 2023 conference: