Union Bannerette - Rubber Workers

By Neale Towart

The bannerettes which usually fronted each Union’s parade entry seem to have been first produced in 1910. The individual unions and societies had their own large display banners for the parades – often the only time they would have been carried outdoors, but the Eight Hour Day Committee produced the small bannerettes. They were made for unions and societies who were members of the Eight Hour Day Committee and parade, and were funded from the fees paid by the unions each year to participate. As the bannerettes were one of the few things that unions had that were matching, they brought cohesion to the parade.

The Rubber Workers Union federated in 1912 and immediately recognised the growing importance of motor transport within the Australian economy, particularly in terms of how it would affect the rubber industry. By 1916 the union had changed its name to the Federated Rubber Workers of Australia. In 1923 its name changed again, this time to the Federated Rubber Workers' Union of Australia. Ten years later, in 1933, it became the Federated Rubber & Allied Workers' Union of Australia. In common with textile and clothing unions, the Rubber and Allied Worker's Union sought to deal with the problem of high labour turnover and with improving the position of migrant labour in Australian industry. The Rubber Workers Union was prominent in Sydney when tyre manufacturing still occurred in Australia at the Dunlop Perdriau plant in Drummoyne.