trigger a three-day strike by unionised hotel workers.

The hotel was only 50 percent full on Friday and not expected to hit 70 percent over the remainder of the long weekend, a front desk clerk said.

She added it was unlikely occupancy would reach the 70-percent level this month.

And yesterday Elbow Beach executive Mr. John Jefferis also said he did not believe occupancy levels would reach 70 percent.

BIU president Mr. Ottiwell Simmons MP has said workers will stage a three-day strike as soon as the hotel is 70 percent full to protest management breaking ties with the BIU and no longer collecting union dues.

The hotel replaced the union contract with a deal offering among other things, profit sharing, a 10.3 percent wage hike and a worker-management committee to settle disputes.

Labour Minister the Hon Irving Pearman has referred the dispute to the Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board for resolution. No date has been set yet.

A three-day labour summit which ended Thursday has apparently not helped to thwart the strike, although both Mr. Simmons and Mr. Jefferis commented afterwards that it had been worthwhile.

The historic summit was aimed at bettering labour-management relations, which Mr. Pearman said had "dramatically deteriorated'' over the last few years.

The Bermuda Hotel Association reported that projected hotel occupancy figures for April and May are ahead of 1991 and 1992.

President Mr. David Dodwell said projected figures are both above 65 percent, well up on the projected figures for the previous two years.

They follow a fall in the final occupancy for March, but the April figures are expected to be above the final figures for the same month last year.

Mr. Dodwell said: "Projections for June seem to be lagging behind those of 1992 and 1991. It is anticipated that due to the late booking pattern of our visitors the projections for June will improve.''