Housing: Recovering, Slowly

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That has been the trend in construction for years, but last week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in two 5-to-4 decisions that unions may legally boycott prefabricated materials in order to preserve their right to perform work on job sites. In the key case, the majority upheld the refusal of Philadelphia carpenters to install factory-finished doors in a housing project built by Frouge Corp. The decisions dealt a blow to cost-cutting efficiency in an industry that has only belatedly begun to emerge from its ancient handicraft ways. That problem, the court ruled, should be resolved by Congress.