Shortage Of Tradesmen Makes Amateur Glaziers

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29713, 5 January 1962, Page 6

Shortage Of Tradesmen Makes Amateur Glaziers

The shortage of skilled glaziers in Christchurch is causing concern to glass merchants. It may take days, even weeks, to get household repair jobs done. Some firms have stopped doing household repair jobs and merely cut the glass and let the householder do the glazing Even this is not done in the firm's time. The glass cutters do the work in the week-end in their own time to try to lighten the demand from householders. Another firm allows Its employees to do small glazing jobs in the week-ends, paying the employee overtime rates and charging the customers the normal price for the job. The managers of three glass firms in Christchurch described the shortage of tradesmen as very serious. There was so much commercial and cottage work being done under contract that small repair jobs just could not be fitted in, they said.

New trends in commercial building have had much to do with the shortage of men available for ordinary household repair work, according to one manager. Multi-storey buildings with large window areas and private homes with ceiling to floor windows were taxing the glazing staffs of most firms. The amount of building in the guburbs was another factor. The manager of one firm said that besides the amount of commercial building work, the decreasing number of apprentices entering the trade had helped to bring about the shortage of skilled tradesmen. Most of the firms had youths serving the four-year apprenticeship but found it difficult to retain them once they became journeymen. Higher paid work as independent sub-contractors enticed them away.

Firms which had advertised in Christchurch and throughout the South Island for skilled glaziers had not received one reply after three weeks of advertising Inquiries overseas had also failed to attract men' in sufficient numbers to alleviate the shortage.