TRADE unionists who used to work at a Sheffield engineering factory appealed for help today to find their missing banner.

Brian Clark, a former employee of Ambrose Shardlow, told the Morning Star: “In its heyday Shardlows employed over 2,000 people, it was a closed shop so [had] 100 per cent trade union membership.” 

The factory, which manufactures crankshafts for the motor industry, had a confederation of trade unions, the largest of which was the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU), now part of Unite, and the banner represents all the unions.

Mr Clark, who became political secretary at Wortley Hall, the workers’ stately home near Sheffield, said: “A few years ago the factory banner was lost having been on a demo in London.

“The lads have tried to find it to no avail. An appeal in the Morning Star might help us find it.”

The banner is pictured raised at a May Day rally in Barnsley.