'We have to train men from labourers’: The agricultural implement trade 1918-1945

Abstract

Between the wars, H. V. McKay's Sunshine Harvester Works was one of the more modern production plants in Australia. In a recent article in the Journal of Industrial Relations, Sandra Cockfield argues that industrial tribunals had little influence at McKay's, leaving management strategy unaltered and workers without influence or protection. The firm was able to de-skill the workforce using a minute division of labour and the mechanisation of production and replace men, first with cheap juvenile labour and later with women and girls. Using the records of the Sunshine Harvester Works and other implement firms, this paper argues that the success of Sunshine management was not so complete. Althou..