CONFUSION IN BUILDING INDUSTRY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22572, 27 February 1948, Page 4

CONFUSION IN BUILDING INDUSTRY

m A STIC though it may he in its immediate effect on the progress with building, the decision of the master builders of. Wellington and the Hutt Valley to force a showdown with the militant members of the Carpenters’ Union is to be commended. The plan is that a secret ballot will be taken among the members of the employers’ organisation as to whether there should be a complete close-down of the industry in the Wellington district. There are bigger and more permanent issues at stake than even the liighly-important efforts being made to catch up with arrears in housing. The Wellington builders’ decision is all part of the battle against tactics which threaten to disrupt the principles, of arbitration and stabilisation and to create an industrial chaos which could extend to other New Zealand workaday activities and undermine the fundamentals of economic stability and personal liberty. It is a thousand pities that there has not been closer liaison between building employers’ organisations throughout New Zealand and also between these organisations as a whole and the Government. The Government has been criticised for vacillation and for hesitation in following up its first threats to deal firmly with the situation. Extenuating circumstances, however, were that builders in some districts showed a premature disposition to meet the demands of the unionists. No doubt these builders were genuinely concerned with continuing construction operations at full speed, hut they should have known that this was precisely the sentiment that the militants were relying upon to enable them to score an unconstitutional victory. The weakness of the builders’ front in Auckland, where the extremists among the workers appear to have carried the day, makes depressing reading in the light of the repercussions that may follow. The builders who choose capitulation will not do the. worrying in the. long run. The public will find themselves faced with still another rise in costs, which will prove most embarrassing to young people who can ill afford to pay the present demands for new houses and their fittings. The Labour Government should not he blamed , for every problem that arises. In many ways it has been dilatory in the past. But when at last it seems to realise the need for. action against white-anting communism and other forms of extremist direct action it should he unitedly and promptly supported by all employers, irrespective of their political sentiments, as well as by all the moderates among the workers. The time to close the ranks has long since arrived.