TWO historic union banners have gone missing, their disappearance only noticed in the lead up to this year’s May Day march.

The hand-crafted banners of the now-defunct Waterside Workers’ Federation of Australia and the Seamen’s Union of Australia—which were amalgamated 20 years ago into the Maritime Union of Australia—were believed to be the last of their kind.

“Somehow they have disappeared,” MUA life member and retired waterside worker Bryn Griffiths says.

“They have been taken out of the union office and maybe they have been used for something because the frames are still there.

“I’ve been hunting them for some time and it would be great to find them in time for the May Day March.”

Mr Griffiths and local artist Brian McKay hand-crafted the banners in the late 1970s.

A maritime historian following his retirement from the wharves, Mr Griffiths wrote a book celebrating 100 years of wharfies in the port city and he says union flags are incredibly important symbols that deserve preservation.

“The history of the unions are very important to myself and a lot of other people,” he says. “However, what one generation values, the next generation might not.”

MUA admin officer Cherie McNeill hopes the banners turn up. “We doubt it, but if someone finds them and returns them, that would be great.”

by BRENDAN FOSTER