Published Resources Details

Conference Paper

Author
Wills, I.
Title
Eveleigh railway workshops, the great war and the great strike
In
From the Past to the Future: 18th Australian Engineering Heritage Conference 2015 [Newcastle]
Imprint
Engineers Australia, Barton, Australian Capital Territory, 2015, pp. 213-225
ISBN/ISSN
9781922107435
Url
https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.697175383012542
Abstract

When they opened, New South Wales Railways' Eveleigh Workshops were a model of the best in railway engineering and an exemplary employer, operating at a surplus until World War I. In an attempt to reverse the deficit, railway Chief Commissioner (previously chief Engineer), James Fraser, determined to introduce the Scientific Management theories of the American Frederick W Taylor. By 1918, the railways had returned to surplus but the reversal was achieved at a great cost. Fraser's introduction of Taylor's Card System prompted a strike that spread from a few hundred Eveleigh employees to become the Great Strike of 1917, effectively a general strike and one of Australia's largest and most bitter industrial disputes. While the Taylor Card System was the catalyst for the Great Strike, its causes were far broader and included the shift from nineteenth century approaches to engineering management, events around the 1916 and 1917 Conscription Referendums, and the very concept of government-owned Railways. This paper asks why the Taylor Card System, an apparently minor change, should have sparked such an intense reaction on both sides, polarising Australian society. To answer this, it explores two issues in detail: reaction to the introduction of Scientific Management and debate over conscription. It points to parallels between these and argues that the similarities are not coincidental.

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