Chapter 6: - Rail, Tram and Bus Union of NSW

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*On Wooden Rails Chapter 6 8/30/05 8:50 PM Page 214 On Wooden Rails - Celebrating 150 Years of Work on the NSW Railways and where hostile employers existed, she organised to meet the women out of work to discuss their conditions and joining the union. She used popular media such as Women Today to gain public support and embarrass the government, before making an award application. The following extract relating to the RRR campaign from Women Today, illustrates the strategy of appealing to general sentiment around working conditions and reflects a subtlety that goes well beyond sloganising or rhetoric. : “What would my women readers say if their husbands came home and said: ‘My boss has started a boarding house at the factory and all the employees must live there, or if not pay board to him just the same’. Wouldn’t their wives be indignant?” The ARU took its case to the NSW Conciliation Commissioner in 1938, to be granted only a small wage increase, but no response on the other grievances about accommodation, hours or meals. So, the union appealed to the full bench of the Commission, represented by Eileen.. “It was unusual in those days, well it was unknown for a woman to be in the arbitration court and there were very few in the legal profession. When the judgement came down they cut the spread of hours, made provision for overtime, increased wages …. And abolished the compulsory board and lodging payment, so that meant that the girls who could live at home …. Had their wages increased by the one pound a week they were paying for board and lodging. So it was a very good result for them.” The success with the Full Bench made Eileen the first woman advocate to argue and gain an award in the Commission. After 8 years with the ARU, running Railroad and organising members, Eileen resigned from the ARU, to care for her mother and took up a position at the Labor Council’s radio station 2KY End of an Era In 1957, the US based consultants EBASCO were retained to report on all areas of railway operations, including the refreshment rooms. It was noted in the report that the metropolitan Triple Rs and kiosks were operating at a profit, whereas some of the country rooms and buffet services were declining. The consultants suggested a return to the past, recommending among 21Women Today, September 1937, cited in Hearn, op.cit., p 68 22Eileen Powell, 1938-40 State Secretary’s Report, p 14, cited in Hearn, p 68 23Chris Brady, op.cit. p265 24Chris Brady, op.cit. Part II, ARHS Bulletin Vol 54, No 790, August 2003, Pp 297 ff 214 other things, that ‘the operation of most of the country rooms should pass to private lessees… and that some rooms should reduce their level of service or be closed’. The rooms at Blayney, Carrathool, Culcairn, Dungog, Gloucester, Harden, Molong, Penrith, Queanbeyan, Tamworth, Wagga Wagga, Wellington and Yass Junction all closed around the time of the release of the report. A number of other country refreshment rooms were leased to private operators. In the 1960s more rooms were closed, including Bathurst, Moss Vale and Coffs Harbour. While refreshment rooms were moving towards final retirement, the Triple R service was renamed as Trading and Catering in 1962-63 (in the 1980s it was renamed as Retail and Catering Services), to reflect a shift in emphasis and activities. These included, in addition to metropolitan and the remaining country refreshment rooms and on-board services, with new catering facilities opening at a number of mainly metropolitan locations. Under new arrangements, some of the major Triple Rs such as Dubbo, Grafton City, Junee, Wollongong, Gosford, Newcastle, Sydney and Tamworth survived into the 1990s. A number of the kiosks and stands still operated on metropolitan and country stations and a few of the original RRR facilities or reduced versions still operate in some locations, such as Wollongong, Newcastle, Dubbo, Junee and Glenn Innes. The decline in steam train travel resulted in the decline, and ultimately the demise of the Triple Rs. Diesel didn’t require long stops and the major interstate prestige trains (such as Southern Aurora, Spirit of Progress) all had onboard buffet or dining cars. Country passenger services further declined with increases in road and air travel. The Intercity XPT doesn’t stop long enough for passengers to get refreshments. Most of the remaining Railway Refreshment Rooms were closed by the mid 1970s. The Triple Rs are now just a part of railway nostalgia. The few remaining rooms that were kept were once more leased to private operators. Many of the grand old buildings have been taken over by historical societies or become part of the station offices; others retained their liquor licences and became pubs. Chapter 6 - No Place for a Woman
*On Wooden Rails Chapter 6 8/30/05 8:50 PM Page 215 Women at Eveleigh Lucy Taksa Women worked at Eveleigh from 1887. Admittedly, their numbers were extremely small. In that first year of full operations the ratio was 1,162 to 1. That one woman was Mrs. Jane Colgate McDougall, a laundress at Eveleigh in that year who was classified as a Cushion Cover Maker from 1 May 1888 and an upholstress in 1890. 1 A year later she was joined in this occupation by her daughter Annie who only stayed at Eveleigh for one year. By contrast Jane remained there until her retirement on 3 September 1911, juggling upholstery work with office cleaning. Another couple of upholstresses joined Jane and Annie in 1891, and three more women worked as caretakers of various barracks at Eveleigh. In total 50 upholstresses were employed in the period before 1939. Like Jane, a number of them also cleaned offices and undertook laundry work. During the First World War their numbers were augmented further. Seven worked as machinists in the tarpaulin sheds and stores and five as shorthand writers and typists. In 1918, the first woman clerk appeared at Eveleigh and by the eve of World War Two forty-nine women had worked in its offices. Far from being temporary intruders in this industrial landscape, a large number of these women were Eveleigh stalwarts. Upholstress Maria Adair, for instance, worked there for thirty-eight years, her cousin Maggie Wauhop for thirty-six years. 2 Similarly, Gertrude May Dickson was a short-hand writer and typist in the Chief Mechanical Engineer’s office for 19 years, while Maria Imelda Healy was a clerk in the same office On Wooden Rails - Celebrating 150 Years of Work on the NSW Railways for 38 years. In some cases these women were related to each other or to men employed in other parts of the workshops. Generally they worked in very small groups, isolated from the majority of Eveleigh’s employees and often from each other as well. Such conditions were markedly different from those experienced by the women employed in Eveleigh’s Munitions Annexe during World War Two. 3 Eveleigh was drawn into the war effort in 1939 after Defence Department officials made a request to the Commissioner for Railways for space to be made available to manufacture 18-pounder shells. Plans were prepared in August of that year and the Munitions Annexe was located in the Tender Shop of the Locomotive workshops under the Ministry of Munitions 'Shadow Factory' Scheme. In May 1940 munitions work began there, although in January 1941 the plant was converted for the production of 25-pounder shells. In November 1942 female process workers were introduced into the Annexe after an additional gallery First Women Apprentices, Chullora Training Centre 1 Jane Colgate McDougall, Railway Personal History Card, State Records NSW, CGS 12922. 2 Maria Adair and Maggie Wauhop, Railway Personal History Cards, State Records NSW, CGS 12922. 3 Information from Eveleigh Employee Database produced by Lucy Taksa using NSW Government Gazette Employee Lists obtained from the NSW State Railway Authority Archives (SRAA) Chapter 6 - No Place for a Woman 215
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Chapter 6: - Rail, Tram and Bus Union of NSW

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