A Builders' Strike

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 11, 1 June 1914, Page 5

A Builders' Strike

|j ENORMOUS INTERESTS INVOLVED, MEN'S STRIKE FUNDS HEAVILY ■■ DRAINED. k ? By Cable—Press Association—Copyright 1 Received 31, 5.5 p.m. London, May 30. > The .strikers number 26,000 out of ; IjO.OOO workers involved in the building - trades. Of the former, 14/KX) are skill--1 ed workers. The dispute at present only aduits the London Master Builders' I Association, with a membership of f 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 unions. Of eleven thousand laborers, tho bulk received seven shillings, 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 ia boing rapidly depleted. The Employers' Federation represents (1000 members, employing 600,000, with a wages hill of over £750,000 weekly, and is estimated that a national lockout would cause the standstill of 150 millions of capital. Fifty million pounds' worth of work 5s in progress. A SERIES OF "LIGHTNING STRIKES." PARALYSES TRADE. Received 31, 6.5 p.m. London, May 30. , The provincial master builders are not keen for a lock-out. The Federation Council meets within ten days to take a ballot, which is necessary before a national lock-out can be declared. A stumbling block in the way of settlement is the employment of nonunionists, and in a lesser degree the nonrecognition of the men's federation. The masters are convinced that a continuance of "lightning strikes" paralyses trade. The method was for the workmen to appoint a certain day for the production of a fellow workers' ticket. If it were not produced a strike was called without notice. After twenty "lightning strikes" the masters deter- , mined to secure a prohibitive guarantee, , which was r 'used. ,