BUILDERS' STRIKE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 1 June 1914, Page 5

BUILDERS' STRIKE

THE INTERESTS INVOLVED

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—TOPYRIGHT. LONDON, May 30. The strikers number 25,000 out of 150,000 workers involved in the building trades. Of the former, 14,000 are skilled workers. The dispute at present only affects the London Master Builders' Association, with, a membership of three hundred, which does not represent the whole of the building trade. The men's executive states that the men have received fifteen shillings weekly in strike pay, increased to twenty shillings in some instances by local contributors, according to the wealth of the local allied trade iinions. Of eleven thousand laborers, the bulk received 7s some up to 12s 6d, and many, chiefly the newly-joined members, who are dependent on the street collections, as low as 2s a week. Many strikers obtain employment with builders outside the Master Builders' Association, and contribute to the general fund. The strike exchequer is being rapidly depleted. The Employers' Federation represents 6000 members, employing 600,000, with a wages bill of over £750,000 weekly, and it is estimated that a national lock-out would cause the standstill of 150 millions of capital. Fifty millions pounds' worth of work is in progress.