CAN WORK BE SPEEDED UP?

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 4, 5 July 1939, Page 10

CAN WORK BE SPEEDED UP?

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Since Mr. Armstrong .has been the Minister in Charge of Housing we have seen a large influx of imported labour. Those brought here by the Government have a guarantee, some twelve months, some as much as three years, but, Mr. Editor, what about our own men, what security have they? None whatever. It seems all right just now as hundreds of men are working on the Exhibition buildings, but once that job is through what is -going to happen. Are we going to see our own people lose their jobs? If this does happen then all I can say is that the policy of this Government is no better than that of any preceding Government, even though it has done a lot of good. I for one want to see permanent improvement and not slip back into the mire we have only just left.

As far as housing is concerned, I have worked on about 100 of those built and I must admit that progress is very slow when the number of men is taken into consideration. Under this chain system I have seen men in gangs of two given ten days to do a certain job. Some do it in the given time and some don't, and yet I have seen one man working on his own because his mate was off sick, do that same job in seven days. I'll admit he was a real good man at his job, but so were the others, they were all picked men. I have seen houses standing idle for weeks waiting for the finishing gang to arrive, and all the time there were men on the job fully qualified to do that class of work who "^uld have done it during wet days, seen the chain system in operau^rin many classes of work and I maintain that it is not an economical system by any means when the number of men employed is taken into consideration. Everything used in these houses is factory cut, excepting weatherboard; all the men have to do then is put things in place and the job is done, and I maintain that under those conditions, for every two carpenters em-, ployed, one completed house every two months should be turned out. I know it is done by a small contractor, working for himself; two men finished a job in eight weeks, including the concrete paths—not just a rush for one job either, each job is done in the same time, nothing factory cut, and all inside finishing work hand dressed. Surely with all the hundreds of men employed better progress could have been made without having to call in outside labour. Some of us were on relief works for years and if this state of affairs goes on it won't be very long before we pack our. tools away once more. Only one thing can save us: a fair return for the money we receive, and by that I don't mean that men should make slaves of themselves. No, four years ago we had enough of that, it meant the sack to straighten the back those days, but I do say a big proportion of tradesmen have not pulled their weight in the last three years. So much for the building side of the programme. Now for those whose job it is to level the sections

and put down the «<>aths. I wonder what it costs per house to do this work. Anyone who has had anything to do on the houses must know that that side of the job costs at least four times as much as it should do. I worked on relief work at relief rates of pay for about two years and although I never did any more than I could help I think I always earned the few bob that was handed out to me. Can a lot of the chaps doing this job s&j that? I wonder how many of them get shaky hands on pay day. In conclusion, I can only say that production can be speeded up at no extra- labour cost if everyone will do their bit.— I am, etc.,

JUST ANOTHER TRADESMAN,