BUILDING TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 38, 13 August 1941, Page 8

BUILDING TRADE

TRAINING OF MEN

SCHEME WILL GO ON

MINISTER EMPHATIC

"I want to say emphatically that this scheme of training1 these men is going on," declared the Minister of Labour (Mr. Webb) in an interview today, when referring to pro- > tests made by carpenters' organisations against the establishment of the auxiliary training school at Wellington for carpenters and other workers essential to the building trade. Mr. Webb referred to th great need of homes for the people and of the Government's determination to do everything in its power to meet that demand. The Minister said he was satisfied that the people responsible for the resolutions lacked an. appreciation of the shortage of housing accommodation. "Thousands of our young men who are now overseas have left their wives at home with their parents," continued Mr. Webb. "There are 20,000 applications for State houses already. Housing construction has been held up because of the lack of skilled men. The Government's desire to push on the construction of homes i.or the people with the utmost speed necessitates the conversion of a lot of semi-skilled and unskilled manual labour into skilled labour and the utilisation of that energy to greater economic purpose. DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS. """The conditions under which many of our people are living, especially in the cities, are deplorable, and the least | I might have expected from some of these carpenters' unions would be their | wholehearted co-operation in the estab- j lishment of a scheme enabling more i men to do this essential work. I am sure that, if the carpenters' unions had to listen to the appeals of mothers of children who are compelled to live in rooms under unhealthy conditions and if they visited some of the places in which their own fellow-workers have I got to live, they would have a full ap- \ preciation of the Government's desire to leave no stone unturned towards the speedy construction of more suitable accommodation for our people. '"1 want to say emphatically that the scheme of training these men is going on. We have thousands of unskilled men who are capable of performing a more useful national purpose and whose energies should be utilised to the fullest extent." Mr. Webb explained that the scheme being arranged provided for auxiliary workers being trained on State houses under competent instructors appointed for the purpose. The training included workshop practice as well as construction work on the dwellings. The scheme would advance only in accordance with the need shown for the training of men. SAFEGUARD PROVIDED. ~ The Minister drew attention to the fact that every precaution had been taken to safeguard the interests of the men already in the' industry. He said that clause 12 of the Auxiliary Workers' Training Emergency Regulations provided that an auxiliary worker on completion of his training shall not be engaged while there was a qualified worker in' the same class out of employment on the register of [ the local union, and no qualified work!er shall be dismissed merely by reason of the fact that an auxiliary worker had been engaged.