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 208 On Wooden Rails - Celebrating 150 Years of Work on the NSW Railways breaks in the middle. Mary was forced to retire, losing seniority and superannuation entitlements, to have her child. When she returned and reapplied for her job, the Department decided that she ‘was too old’ at forty one. “I said to him [the district superintendent] ‘Well if I’m not too old to have a baby, I don’t see that I’m too old to put my arm out with a flag.’ And he said, “well fair enough”, so he passed me. My mother lived at Chippendale and I used to take the baby –it was a five o’clock start at Town Hall, so I used to take her in at four o’clock [in the morning] and then go on to work, and then I’d go back to mum’s and take her home.” 7 In addition to the poor provision for the requirements of mothers and parenting at the time, people like Mary also received hostility from co-workers. “I think I was one of the first [women] that started on the platforms…. They just ignored me, the guards, they wouldn’t take the right of way from a woman, they just ignored me, they’d take it when they were ready.. Because there weren’t many women on the railways at that stage … only station assistants and cleaning women, cleaning the trains.” 8 Jim Walshe, former ARU Secretary recalls the efforts by a member, Janet Oakden who was then employed in the Railway Refreshment Rooms, who wanted to cross over and be trained for the footplate and become a driver. The AFULE was opposing her ambition to be the first woman on the footplate, and she was requesting help from her union to fight the obstructions. As Jim points out, this put the ARU in the awkward and unwelcome position of fighting another union over the issue. Nonetheless, she persisted and was determined to join the driver’s ranks. 208 Janet Oakden 7 Mary Stratton cited in Hearn p 121 8 Mary Stratton cited in Hearn, p 122 9 Interview with Jim Walshe, July 2005 Jim describes an ‘unusual support role’ played by driver’s wives who turned out in numbers at the union meeting to discuss the claims. The women at the meeting raised their own concerns about a woman being in barracks with their husbands. Janet was apparently unsympathetic to these concerns, replying that if she ‘ fancied him and chose to sleep with their husbands she would.’ The tensions created by Janet Oakden’s desire to take on the ‘male domain’ of the footplate and the unions was only stopped by her failing the medical due to colour blindness, and leaving the industry to return to Britain. 9 The irony of much of the resistance to women working in the railways, is that on the one hand there was a ‘feminine’ argument around the work being too hard or heavy for women. ‘We are not opposed to women workers, but the work is unsuitable for them’. While on the other, women were employed in some of the most onerous, difficult dirty and laborious jobs in the industry. Women (and in particular, migrant women) were employed in large numbers, for example, in the carriage cleaning sheds in Sydney, the ACDEP air conditioning depot at MacDonaldtown, workshops and similar locations. Rather than being non-existent or inconsequential, the rail culture and operations priorities rendered much women’s work invisible or disguised it as marginal. In recent times, and in particular a resolution passed at the RTBU National Council in 2003, supporting the ITF campaign to develop affirmative action strategies for women in unions, the union is putting more effort into providing education and training and organising women members. Linda Carruthers has been involved in organising a branch women’s conference with women from across all areas of the industry, and in joint union activities with women from other transport unions. Currently a Women’s Campaign Committee is being formed within the NSW Branch of the RTBU. This chapter has selected a number of individual women and work illustrations, to demonstrate the range and depth of activity by women in the railways workforce. The extent to which some of these earlier stories have become relegated to history, while other aspects, especially in relation to the particular requirements of women workers remain live issues in the current work practices. Chapter 6 - No Place for a Woman
*On Wooden Rails Chapter 6 8/30/05 8:50 PM Page 209 Tea Without Sympathy Women of the Triple R In their recent book, Haynes and Hannah comment that very few stories collected were about women. ”There is a very good reason for this: for the first hundred years of its existence the railways employed very few women. Women didn’t become train drivers, firemen, guards or stationmasters until relatively recently”. “Even today with equal opportunity enshrined into our industrial awards, women still only make up a small proportion of the railway workforce. In NSW for example, there are 2770 train drivers and only thirty one of them are women. Of the 2070 track workers on the permanent way, only four are women.” 1 Only in the area of station assistants and managers are there significant women workers (approximately 16% of the workforce). While some of these claims, and mere focus on numbers of women employees is challenged elsewhere in this book, a celebrated area that was predominantly made up of women, was the Railway Refreshment Rooms. The Railway Refreshment Rooms (or Triple Rs) were both a worksite for thousands of men and women on the railways, and often operated under very austere and harsh conditions, but they were also a unique part of the long distance train traveller’s experience. The Triple Rs were an important public and social ambassador for the railways, employing a range of staff and spurning their own mini-industries of bakers, butchers, and others servicing the refreshment rooms on the stations. The fact that trains used steam power and need to be changed, watered and re-coaled, meant long delays at some stations, on what by modern standards were very long travel times. Thus, wherever there were main loco yards or junctions there were Triple Rs. In some places, passengers sat down to silver service three course meals in ornate dining rooms. Other stations just had fruit, pie and coffee stalls called ‘tearooms’. The railway pie was the fast food of the steam era. On Wooden Rails - Celebrating 150 Years of Work on the NSW Railways RRR Staff, Coffs Harbour, 1947 Early accounts of a ‘rest room’ at Sydney Terminal were said to be via the supply of pastries by a Mrs Moon. Haynes and Hannah quote the official Departmental History of 1955 to support this quaint claim: “The first refreshment room [at Sydney Terminal] consisted of a counter and two stools. It was open only shortly before the departure and arrival of trains. Supplies were brought to the station by a kind old lady from her pastry cook shop in Botany Road. It was quite common to see hungry passengers anxiously looking out for Mrs Moon and her basket when she was a little later than usual.” 2 The first refreshment facility, however, seems to be the claim of Mr Henry Dudley, who applied to the railway manager in 1855 to rent a room for the provision of refreshments. Finally, in 1856 he was leased a room for two pounds a week. His wife was also employed at Sydney station as a ladies’ waiting room attendant. At that stage, stoves were not allowed on the railway premises, making it difficult to provide hot refreshments. Dudley tried to get around this obstacle by erecting a tent on grounds near the station. His tent had twice caught fire from sparks from passing engines, and in 1857 nearly blew over in strong winds. He abandoned the venture in 1859. 3 1Jim Haynes & Russell Hannah, All Aboard! Tales of the Australian Railways, ABC Books, Sydney, 2004, p 232 2Ibid, p 235. In the tradition of populist histories, the authors didn’t bother to trouble their readers with details of the reference they cite. 3See Andrew Messner, Train Up ! Railway Refreshment Rooms in New South Wales, ARM Management, Sydney, 2003, Pp 7-9 Chapter 6 - No Place for a Woman 209
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Chapter 6: - Rail, Tram and Bus Union of NSW

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