Evening star., 1947-12-21
Unions Not Sole Cause
Of Shortage in Homes

vi SIiOStOSS III siOiIiCS
Other Factors Besides Labor Practices
Found Assravatins the Problem
By Gerard D. Reilly
One of the sadly familiar by-products of
the war has been the persistent shortage Of
dwelling houses in the industrial areas Of
the country. The archaic conditions prevailing
ir the industry which have thwarted both
n,,hlic and private attempts to cope with the
shortage have been the subject Of investigation
this fall by a subcommitte of the House Com
mittee on Education and Labor, and its report
now being prepared by Henry Mitchell, the
committee counsel, will be presented to Con-
gress before the regular session.
The subcommittee, consisting OF Representa-
tives Ralph w. Gwinn of New York. chairman;
Thomas L. Owens of Illinois and Wngate H.
Lucas of Texas, was directed to investigate
only one phase of the misunderstanding and
restrictive practices in the building trades.
Handicapped by lack of funds, the subcom-
mittee was able to conduct hearings only in
Chicago, New York and Washington but the
information obtained reveals the need for a
thoroughgoing reform in every aspect of the
housing construction industry.
It is estimated that close to a million and
a hall new dwellings must be built each year
for the next 10 years in order to provide
adequate shelter for the American people. The
extent to which the industry is falling far
short of this goal is illustrated by the fact that
even the most optimistic estimates indicate
that the number of permanent units started
in 1s47 will amount only to about 100000 as
against $4,000 in the preceding year. Because
OF skyrocketing prices however, the committee
was told the immediate market demand at cur
rent figures is probably not more than 100000.
To charge the building trades unions with
sole responsibility for pricing badly needed
dwellings beyond the point the market will bear
conveys an incomplete picture OF the situation.
For one thing, the credit facilities made avail
able by the insurance operations OF the Fed
eral Housing Administration and the Servce
Mems Readjustment Act have been much
abused Real estate spectators have made
enormous profits on home building sites
through the fact that private bankers. know
ing the Government was taking the risk, have
made loans on inflated appraisals. And con-
tractors in order to make killing on materials
which are in short supply have IN many In
stances collaborated with labor unions in re-
fusing to use new materials developed by mass
production industry.
After JnlS is SdlQ, however, IL Llust NC CoH~
ceded that many labor practices in this field
are an important factor in the economics OF
scarcity which are characteristic Of the build
ing industry. The transcripts of the hearings
show that the building of houses has been
almost untouched by modern production meth
ods The construction of a small house In
wolves the use of some 10000 parts, over 500
different operations, and between Is and so
separate skills. Although the AFL Council
has created a single department to handle
building trades matters, contractors and home
builders have to deal with 10 different craft
unions.
The committee was unable to obtain even
a rough estimate of the number OF construction
workers in the country or the total number
needed There was abundant testimony, how
ever, of current shortage Of artisans IN all
the cities covered, illustrated in several in
stances by newspaper advertisements revealing
that contractors were bidding against one
another for mechanics by Offering rates well
above the union scale. One startling TACT un-
covered by the committee was that the average
age of the skilled worker Is above SO years,
which indicates that in the face OF rising de-
rand the actual labor force must be steadily
decreasing.
In the cities where virtually all building
considerable time in ascertaining whether un-
ions had policies of closed or restricted MEM
bership. While some instances of this were
found in New York where high initiation fees
or preferential policies in favor of relatives
obtain, probably the greatest obstacle to ex-
pansion in the building trades unions generally
has been the fact that most union constitutions
require an apprenticeship of from two to four
years. Although division of the Department
Of Labor was created by the Seventy-f1fth Con-
gress to promote a policy Of increasing the
number of apprentices, the results have been
disappointing to the sponsors of the legislation.
In 1916 there was heartening increase of 80
per cent in the number of registered appren-
tices but this figure fell off to 81 per cent in
the first six months of this year
Wholly apart from the shortage of workers,
another contributing influence to the exorbtant
cost of a finished house has been the decline in
productivity per craftsman. To some extent
this has been deliberate. The committees at
tention was called to the bylaws of the lathers'
union which provide that IS bundles of laths
will constitute days work This frequently
means that fathers can leave their jobs one or
two hours before the conventional quitting time
as full eight-hour day is not necessary to
finish this number of bundles
In the bricklaying trade however no clear
pattern emerged. One important union con-
tractor testified that he was able to have 1000
bricks per worker laid each day. although a
competing firm in the same city was able to
obtain only half this rate of production The
prevalence OF hourly rates in some cities seems
TO nave retarded productivity. One interesting
comparison was that in Boston the average Is
800 bricks per day with hourly rated brick.
layers earning $40 per week, whereas in Allan.
Ia oricklayers laying an average Of 900 per day
earned $l89 on piecework basis.
+ X
Despite the prohibition in the Taft-Hartley
Labor Management Relations Act against Sec
ondary boycotts many unions still refuse to
work on certain kinds Of materials One Of
the traditional rules of the Brotherhood Of
Carpenters has been that members of this