Belfast Trades Council, also known as Belfast & District Trades Union Council, brings together trade unionists in and around Belfast in Northern Ireland.
History The council was founded on 29 October 1881 at a meeting of eleven trade unionists. Their immediate aim was to support an ongoing strike of linen tenters, who were facing a 10% cut in their wages.Eugene McEldowney, "Council founded in 1881", Irish Times, 2 November 1881 It was the second trades council to be established in Ireland, after the Cork Workers' Council.Peter Collins, "The Belfast Labour Movement, 1881-1921", Nordirland in Geschichte und Gegenwart, pp.82-98
In its early years, the council was dominated by its president, Samuel Munro, and secretary Alexander Bowman. Most of its affiliates were small, local unions representing skilled workers. It affiliated to the British Trades Union Congress in 1882,Ian Budge and Cornelius O'Leary, Belfast: Approach to Crisis: A Study of Belfast Politics 1613-1970, p.133 but achieved little and struggled to survive during the 1880s. It was boosted by affiliations from new unions of unskilled workers during the 1890s. However, their representatives were more radical, and William Walker and John Murphy became prominent, persuading the council to affiliate to the British Labour Representation Committee and run a joint newspaper, the Belfast Labour Chronicle, with their Belfast Labour Representation Committee.
The council was involved in the Irish Trades Union Congress (ITUC) from its foundation, in 1894, although initially it favoured also retaining links with the British Trades Union Congress (TUC). These ended the following year, when the TUC voted to exclude trades councils from direct members, and the council thereafter devoted significant time to the ITUC. By 1897, it was the largest trades council in Ireland, representing 17,500 members in 56 affiliates, and that year, it sponsored six successful candidates for the Belfast Corporation.
The council led opposition to conscription during World War I, organising a meeting of 20,000 people on the issue. It was particularly prominent during the Belfast strike, 1919, when it described itself as a "Council of Action" and largely controlled the movement of goods in the city.Ed. Micheal O'Flynn, Odette Clarke and Paul Hayes, Marxist Perspectives on Irish Society, pp.10, 12
During the 1930s, the council worked with the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) to campaign against unemployment and for improved benefits for unemployed workers.Aaron Edwards, A History of the Northern Ireland Labour Party, p.16 By the 1940s, members of the Communist Party of Northern Ireland held leading roles on the council."'Communist stooge' allegation", Irish Times, 25 September 1950 In 1965, it organised a conference on civil rights, and with various other groups, it formed the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association the following year.Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, 'We Shall Overcome': The History of the Struggle for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland 1968 - 1978
Secretaries 1881: Alexander Bowman 1886: Robert Meharg as of 1893: Richard Sheldon 1890s: Alex Taylor 1899: William Walker 1903: John Murphy 1909: David Robb Campbell c.1920: c.1930: Robert Morrow c.1945: John McAteer 1947: Betty Sinclair 1975: 1980s: A. Hope 1990s: Desi Murray 2000s: Kevin Doherty
Presidents 1881: Samuel Munro 1886: John O'Clohissey 1889: W. J. Leahy 1890: John Martin 1895: Joseph Taylor 1907: W. J. Murray 1910s: H. T. Whitley 1922: Dawson Gordon 1947: John Kerr 1980s Joe Cooper/Liam McBrinn 1990s: Pearce McKenna Brian Campfield 2010s: Paddy Mackel
References
Further reading Ann McKee, Belfast and District Trades Union Council: the First Hundred Years (1881—1981)