Ulster Workers Council

The Ulster Workers Council was a loyalist workers' organisation set up in Northern Ireland in 1974 as a more formalised successor to the Loyalist Association of Workers. It was formed by shipyard union leader Harry Murray and initially failed to gain much attention. However, with the full support of the Ulster Defence Association the UWC became the main mobilising force for loyalist opposition to power sharing arrangements.

The UWC was controlled by a co-ordinating committee, which was chaired by Glenn Barr, at the time a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party, as well as a brigadier in the UDA. Initially made up of fringe figures, the committee grew in stature after the beginning of the Ulster Workers Council Strike, with Ian Paisley amongst those to take up a seat.

After the success of the 1974 strike, the UWC organised a repeat in 1977, although by this point the dependence on the loyalist workforce had been reduced and the impact of this second UWC strike was much less. Former spokesman Harry Murray suggested that the UWC was being reorganised in 1981, although nothing came of this and the UWC was largely brought to an end by the failure of 1977.

Bibliography

*H. McDonald & J. Cusack, "UDA – Inside the Heart of Loyalist Terror", Dublin, Penguin Ireland, 2004