TOOL SHORTAGES AFFECT BUILDING INDUSTRIES

Evening Star, Issue 26151, 12 July 1947, Page 8

TOOL SHORTAGES AFFECT BUILDING INDUSTRIES

Tool shortages 1 in the carpentry and plastering trades, and in other sections of the building industry, are a source of worry to firms, tradesmen, and apprentices. Supplies, which come from overseas sources, are intermittent and inadequate. And, although some of the tools which do arrive are of a quality very nearly as good as those imported before the war, most of them, and particularly ' screw drivers, will not stand up to ordinary use. CARPENTRY APPRENTICES SUFFER. Concern that their apprentices are unable to muster a full set of tools For the time when their apprenticeship is completed, has been expressed by the Master Builders’ Association. According to one prominent builder who spoke to the 1 Star ’ to-day, it is realised that tools are arriving in New Zealand in numbers insufficient to satisfy the demand, and that everyone connected with? the trade must suffer, but it is felt that apprentices to private firms are. affected unduly because there is discrimination in favour of returned men who are training under the rehabilitation scheme. “ The Rehabilitatiuji Department is scooping the market by obtaining its tools at the source,” he said. NO PRIORITY FOR REHAB. TRAINEES. An officer of the Rehabilitation Department told the 1 Star ’ that the department has no priority, but obtains its tools in the same way as do private builders— “‘ where it cap get them.” The- department supplies to the trainee only a skeleton kit to the value of about £ls, which is -paid for by weeky payments, and. is designed to enable the trainee to get through the four months’ workshops course with which his two years’ training.begins. AH other tools to complete his kit must be found by the trainee himself.. The task of the department in securing tools in order to make up the basic kit was by no means easy, and in the same way it was difficult for the trainee to complete his kit. But “ the majority seem to have collected a reasonable sort of kit by the time their training is finished,” the ‘ Star ’ was told. FIRM BUYS SECOND-HAND TOOLS. As an illustration of the present shortage ot carpenters’ tools, the ‘ star ' was informed that the Oarpen--ters’ Union formerly obtained tools from tne merchants m order to supply them directly to tradesmen and apprentices, but the union had not received any supplies for eight months. Apart from the acute supply shortage, the tools which do reach this country are now more expensive, and of a quality so inferior that they have to be renewed more frequently. One. buijding firm has gone to the extent • of advertising. for second-hand tools in order to build up a supply from which it can provide tools for its employees. Such a scheme is of great help in augmenting incomplete kits, but it is one which is as difficult as obtaining new tools., ■ Apart from the shipping position, it is felt in Dunedin that there are other contributing factors to the shortage. In Britain,-from where most carpenters’ tools are imported, the steel industry is suffering .from a lack of man power, and has been adversely affected by the fuel crisis. In Britain itself, as in this country, there is also a big back list of orders to be made up—a result of the war years. GOVERNMENT NOT ASSISTING. “ So far as plasterers are concerned, the position- is worse than serious,” a plasterer told the ‘ Star.’ His company was unable to take on another apprentice because it could not supply him with tools There were 14 men training at the Rehabilitation Centre, he said, and firms would be expected to assist in their rehabilitation by employing them when their training was finished The Government should see that tools were made available. There had, however, been no assistance from that quarter so far. Britain, with her own problems, was unable to supply tools in a sufficient quantity, but n hy, the plasterer asked, could they not be got from America ? During the past six months he had been able to obtain only four trowels, and this number was clearly insufficient when each man required one trowel every eight months His employees were compelled to us tools that would normally have been scrapped, and the result was that the class of work that they were able to turn out was not as good as thev would like it to be. Only a few of Ins men had trowels in condition satisfactory for finishing work. A merchant said that few tools came from America, and that the- supply position had' not improved since the end of the war. It is- understood, however, that in some * cases where licenses had been held in the United Kingdom, and Britain had been unable to supply the goods, they have been transferred to other countries, including America and Sweden. Nevertheless, apprentices cannot acquire tools which are necessary to them, and tradesmen canV hot replace those which are broken -or lost. No one is able to say when the position can be,expected to improve. One plasterer has written to the Minister of Supply, Mr Nordmeyer, but has not yet received a reply.