Northern Ireland

Belfast strike of 1919 paved the way for shorter working week

The strike committee produced their own leaflet
The strike committee produced their own leaflet The strike committee produced their own leaflet

THIS week 100 years ago, Belfast came to an almost-complete standstill with the start of the biggest industrial strike in the history of the city.

The four-week-long walk-out involved 40,000 shipyard and other engineering workers, both Catholics and Protestants, who were demanding a shorter working week and better conditions.

An additional 20,000 linen mill workers - mainly women - were also laid off due to power cuts.

With no electricity, shops closed, trams couldn't run and the printing presses, with the exception of the Northern Whig, stopped rolling.

Hospitals, however, were spared the industrial action.

The 1919 Belfast engineering strike, which began on January 24 and ended on February 20, was the start of a wave of industrial unrest across Ireland and Britain and although the workers' demands for a 44-hour week ultimately failed, their action paved the way for the current 39-hour working week.

To commemorate the centenary, a talk was held in Belfast organised by The Fellowship of Messines Association, a group from loyalist, republican and trade union backgrounds united in a desire to confront sectarianism and understand historical legacies.

It is part of a series of events on the theme of Centenaries and Citizenship: Milestones or Millstones?

Among the speakers was author, journalist and historian Padraig Yeates who explained that the strike took place at the end of the First World War when workers wanted an end to the hardships of the war years.

"Employers agreed to reduce the basic working week from 54 hours to 47 hours without a cut in pay but on January 14 shipyard workers in Belfast voted by over 22,000 to 1,100 to reject the offer and insisted on 44 hours. On Clydeside in Glasgow the demand was for 30 hours," he said.

Workers involved in the strike came not just from Harland and Wolff but from the smaller shipyard of Workman Clark and from engineering plants such as Mackie's and Sirocco.

Said Mr Yeates: "The Glasgow strike collapsed relatively quickly - two weeks before the Belfast men went back - and it was very violent with some of the leaders charged and imprisoned.

"But in Belfast it was a very orderly and discipline dispute. The strike committee ran the city in conjunction with the lord mayor, and the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) appointed 300 special constables nominated by the strike committee to help maintain law and order and avoid battles with the police."

However this did not prevent city centre businesses trying to tap emergency power supplies intended for hospitals, resulting in them being stoned by crowds of workers.

Mr Yeates explained that troops were also kept in their barracks to avoid confrontations, with Dawson Bates, future home affairs minister at Stormont, warning that if any of the workers got injured in a fight with the troops "nothing could save Belfast from becoming a scene of disorder... the consequences of which were far reaching".

As in Glasgow, the strike failed, with the reality of no pay forcing the men back to work.

"Both were the start of a wave of strikes that secured an average reduction of 6.5 hours a week across the United Kingdom by 1920," Mr Yeates said.

"It was the greatest reduction in working hours ever secured on these islands and one of the few gains that was not clawed back by employers once the post-war boom ended.

"Yet, within six months union organisation in the shipyards was smashed and many members of the strike committee expelled."