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ms weekender saturday june 6 1998p 7 construction strikes turn sites into ghost towns mike adler staff reporter a second strike by construction trades has shut down work on new homes in york region area builders had done their best to work around a fiveweekold strike by 2000 dry- wallers who rejected a new contract offer wednesday but when laborers involved in earlier stages of home construction walked off the job this week that became impossible said- a spokesperson from the greater toronto homebuilders asso ciation since monday morning im hearing the sites are like ghost towns stephen dupuis the groups executive vicepresident i dont think people realize just how much effect this can have the unions are on strike against separate asso ciations of contractors not against the builders but builders started to lash out at the strikers this week saying they and the homebuying con sumers are caught in the middle they want their house and who can blame them dupuis said adding the builders were willing to sit back until now we know that we have legal rights to use replacement workers he said the united brotherhood of carpenters-dry- wall acoustic local 675 voted 825 per cent against a threeyear deal offered by the interior systems contractors association workers in the second strike belong to the labourers international union of north ameri ca local 183 a drywallers spokesperson said the contrac tors offered top little in the first year our members want more money now because no one knows what the economy will be like in two years john lewis the unions business manag er the union also wants minimum bonuses for extras like high ceilings and skylights that workers now negotiate on their own he said in good times when its busy the individual has a lot of leverage in bad times nothing is paid lewis said he regrets the inconvenience to homebuyers but added his members havent got ten a pay cheque for five weeks theyre fear ing losing their houses and everything else he said no one benefits from a strike but the builders association noting only about a third of local 675 voted on the offer charged that drywallers have been working outside the greater toronto area they certainly dont seem to be available to vote and they dont seem to be able to picket dupuis said v he added his group is hearing reports of threats against nonunion workers ive had six calls today from different builders lewis said hes heard nothing about his mem bers finding work outside the strike area and added these builders who want to play games and bring nonunion people in and going to find it harder to get workers once the strike is over photo a winner for local woman former markhamite and new stouffville res ident luanne griffin has captured first place in the toronto star photo contest with her unique shot of a mouse in her pool a lifelong shutterbug her firstplace finish in the pets category is her second win in three years in the popular annual contest this year there were more than 15000 entries its very exciting said griffin its hard to believe i could win twice out of 15000 pic tures its quite something the 650 canon camera she was awarded is the second hightech modern camera she has won but she still relies on her old minolta for her best shots when she spotted the mouse doing laps around her pool in her former rae cr home last summer she knew shed better grab her camera i thought my grandchildren would enjoy the picture anyway but it turned out really well the 57yearold mother of five said how the tiny field mouse ended up in the pool remains a mystery but once in it couldnt get out the poor thing was forced to keep swimming around and around after getting the picture griffin scooped the exhausted mouse out and it scampered away safe at last two years ago griffin placed second in the peoplccategorywith a shot of her three daugh ters leaping over a sand dune many of her best pictures are displayed every year at the markham fair last year griffins soninlaw mitch burdey earned an honourable mention in the contest for a shot of his wife sue throwing their two- yearold daughter anna in the air during a swim griffin moved to stouffville in march i i0 tpx-s- above mouse photo won luanne grif fin top honours in this years toronto star photo contest in the pet category at left her secondplace shot two years ago of her three active daughters special advertising feature tuesday june 16th i polo for heart event friday june 19 sat sun june 20 21 sat sun june 27 28 i m i tour no 1 source in markhamstouffville for local news sports entertainment shopping real estate classified and flyers delivered to your door 3 times a week with a combined circulation of over 139000 limited space available when you advertise in this special section you not only receive high readership of your ads you also get the added benefit of helping a very worthy cause deadline thursday june 11th to advertise call markham economist sun tel 905 2942200 fax 905 2941538 classified 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