Intimidation Tactics Keep Carpenters Away

Chronicle (Levin), 5 April 1949, Page 6

Intimidation Tactics Keep Carpenters Away

AUCKLAND, Aprxf 4. With the staffs of mapy firms still considerably below norma! strength, disorganisation still reigns in the build-; ing industry in Auckland. It is §ix and! a-half weeks since the carpenters were dismissed en masse by the Auckland Master Builders ' Association following the adoption by the union of a go-slow-poliCy as a protest against the terms of the new award which came into force in D'ecember. ■ : The registration of the new union to replaee the deregistered seetion rof th^ Carpenters' Union has not yet been: sought by the organisers. , , v On some 'jobs the number of-carpenr, ters who resumed work after the dey registration of the union pn March '25 1has dwindled as the result of alleged, intimidation. Of more than 90 employed on a State housing contract at Tamaki, only one is back at-work. Several builders reported they hadlost ipen who feared they would - be ' ' blaeklisted. ' ' In some cases carpenters who were preparing to start wprk had packed up the|r tools and returned to% the city after being spoken to by other unionists. It is alleged that oue group of workers was "abused'* by the occupants of two cars which followed them to their job. ;