Threatened strike of Belfast relief workers (1932)

A meeting of the men which had been held the previous Thursday carried by a large majority the recommendation of their committee that they “should leave work today as a protest” against what they described as “inadequate remuneration”.

It was also resolved that the committee should patrol the streets “to see that effect was given to the meeting's decision”.

The News Letter noted that at that time about 1,900 men were employed on relief work which was “mainly in the nature of street reconstruction, there being between 60 and 80 thoroughfares under repair”.

It added: “Employment is given to each man for two or two-and-a-half days per week at pay which is equivalent to the amount he would receive in outdoor relief for the week.”

The News Letter had learned that neither the Corporation nor the Board of Guardiaus had received “official” notification of the men's intention to strike as indicated, “but the authorities have taken thorough precautions to deal with any situation that might arise”.

The relief workers demanded, among other things, that all relief works should be done under trade union conditions and that they should be remunerated at trade union rates.

The government, commented the News Letter, were presently “devoting a great deal of consideration to the problem both of outdoor relief and of relief workers' pay. An important announcement in this connection may shortly be made”.

At their monthly meeting at Glengall Street, Belfast, the members of the Ulster Unionist Labour Association passed the following resolution: “While we appreciate the difficult position in which the Guardians are placed owing to the present regrettable and widespread distress, we feel it is absolutely necessary that the amount given in the form of outdoor relief should be considerably increased, although we recognise that this may tend to increase the city rates.”

Meanwhile, the Belfast Council of Social Welfare had discussed the “serious situation created by the inadequacy of the outdoor relief grants” and it was agreed that action should be taken to “bring the facts before the public”.

The Reverend T M Johnstone, BA, preaching in Newington Presbyterian Church, Belfast, on the subject of the “Gospel Supper”, had spoken strongly about Christ's “undiminished interest in the bodies of men”.

The Reverend Johnstone said: “When Jesus was on earth He said to his disciples 'Give ye them to eat'. That was His ringing challenge to the world today.

“Until quite recent times boards of guardians were known as poor law guardians, and their work primarily was that of guarding the interests of the poor. But though the name is now changed their purpose should not be changed.

“It is quite right that boards of guardians should have an eye to the rates, but it was much more to the point that they should have an eye to the needs of the poor.

“A city whose rates are low because the poor are not bidden, as they should be, to the city's banqueting house, is a city that ought to hide its head in shame.

“The poverty and unemployment of today are different from that of other days, in that they are not altogether the outcome of conditions of their own creating.

“Mankind is today the victim of a worldwide economic cataclysm.”