Carpenters Defy Union Ban

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31128, 3 August 1966, Page 1

Carpenters Defy Union Ban

Two carpenters yesterday defied the union ban on jobs on which Masonry Services, Ltd., of Christchurch, was alleged to be blocklaying by labouronly contract.

They were working beside a man building veneer and another building a chimney. The carpenters said they were self-employed, working as independent sub-contractors to Masonry Services, Ltd. The four men were working on two partly-built flats in Carruthers street, Hornby. The carpenters declined to give their names because they said they feared victimisation and that their jobs might be jeopardised. Carpenters in Christchurch have been instructed by their union not to work on houses where blocklaying is being done by labour-only contract. The two carpenters said they did not favour the ban. “If blocklaying was not being done this way, there would not be many men working on the job,” said one. “If they put the blocklayers on wages they would take twice as long and carpenters would not get the continuity of work.”

The bricklayer-blocklayer who was building the chimney, Mr H. Videler, aged 27, said he did not mind giving his name and he was prepared to answer any questions.

“I am earning £4O a week.

I am my own boss; I work eight or nine hours a day and I work till 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. Saturdays; I buy all my own materials and I cart my materials in my own truck.” Mr Videler said that he was very annoyed that the unions' were attempting to interfere with his livelihood by trying to cut off his raw material supplies. He said he was not a member of a union and was entirely self-employed. He bought his raw materials from Masonry Services, Ltd. Mr Videler said he was a Dutchman who had been in New Zealand for five years and was trying to get ahead in the world. There was no question of his working at such a great speed that the quality of work suffered as a result, he said. He took off 10 minutes each morning and afternoon for tea break, and half ah hour for lunch. He paid for his own insurance cover and put £1 aside a week as provision for his annual holidays. Mr Videler said that he was

a sub-contractor in his own right. He received a certain contract price for the chimneys before he started to build them and that gave him an incentive to work.

Another blocklayer on the same job, Mr W. Brewer, of Kendal avenue, said that he was very happy working as a sub-contractor, making about £35 a week.

Three carpenters were interviewed in neighbouring areas where Masonry Services, Ltd., were carrying out large quantities of work. At one job In Dunstan crescent, two Maori carpenters, Messrs S. McGregor, aged 26, of Wairoa, and A. Arahanga, aged 20, of Kaetihi, agreed that they would not break down an award. We believe in award wages and conditions.” A carpenter on another job in Whitham street, Hornby, Mr G. Gibson, of Cashmere, said that he thought the unions did not know what they were doing. “I don’t think they have enough information to work on.” At a house the unions de-

ciared “black” in Boston avenue, Hornby, a drainlayer, Mr R. E. Coles, of Linwood, was working normally.

“I am not interested in the job being declared ‘black,’” he said. “I am interested in laying drains and in making a quid.” A reporter made a tour of jobs involved in the dispute at the invitation of the man-aging-director of Masonry Services, Ltd. (Mr H. P. Oberg). He said that his company employed no contract labour, but engaged independent blocklaying contractors. “This scheme is successful because there is adequate supervision,” he said. The secretary of the Canterbury Carpenters’ Union (Mr R. J. Pitcairn) said that some wallboard fixers yesterday walked off a job. When some blocklayers alleged to be working on lab-our-only contract arrived and refused to leave, the wallboard men walked off.

Discussing the two carpenters defying the union ban, the president of the Canterbury Trades Council of the Federation of Labour (Mr R. A. Hill) said: “In the industrial movement we have always had to put up with one or two weak sisters in most disputes. These are the type of people who gladly accept all the rewards won for them by the struggle of the trade unions but are never a part of the army. “If only a handful of misguided workers who think that they can make a few extra pounds for the present out of illegal labour-only contracts would give the matter mature consideration, they would realise that they are \>eing used by the employers to break down established working conditions,” said Mr Hill.

In the photograph below Mr Videler is shown building a chimney.