industrial turmoil, it is important to take a look at where Bermudians are.

Once again Bermuda's livelihood has been damaged, its future jeopardised and its daily life disrupted to no real result. The entire matter is now in the hands of the courts where it should have been in the first place. The BIU leadership has demonstrated clearly that it is interested in power and not in progress and that it is willing to punish the Country to achieve some very narrow ends.

Clearly a wide cross section of Bermuda was not in favour of industrial action, certainly not at this time. That was demonstrated very clearly by the lack of general response to a "general strike'' call and by the people who stayed at work. But, regrettably, public opinion did not register with the BIU and the union marched on regardless.

The BIU leadership has to know what industrial turmoil does to Bermuda. It has to know that any entity can only take so many blows before it collapses. The BIU's hotels division must tell the leadership what strikes do to tourism and how the visitors react when their expensive vacations are ruined. The BIU must count the number of jobs placed in jeopardy by industrial action and the number of workers who lose their gravy jobs when strikes are over. The BIU must remember that Bermuda's tourism never really recovered from the events of 1981. The BIU must know that Bermuda is able to provide a very good living for all its people if its business is allowed to function without destructive action by the BIU or by employers. The BIU must know, because the public knows, that there is a great difference between action which protects the workers and action which destroys their livelihood. There are certainly occasions when unions have to stand up for their members. There are occasions when strikes are warranted but the BIU is strike prone.

Groups of people sometimes mistake power for caring and mistake control for concern. We think the BIU has been misled into adopting power and control instead of care and concern for the rights and dignity of its members. What we have seen in recent weeks is the BIU using its power and the control it has over a small hard-core of its members, to defeat its own purpose which has to be the protection of the welfare of its overall membership. The BIU has used its power to destroy jobs, not to protect them; to jeopardise wages, not to increase them; to endanger the future, not to broaden it.

This time, we think, the BIU got it all wrong. This time it was not seen as opposing employers or even the Government. This time it was seen as opposing the will of the people who did not want disruption when they were working to get Bermuda's economy going again. This time the BIU was seen as acting against the best interests of Bermuda. That is why people stayed at work. That is why the general strike call received so little support. That is why the BIU was taken to court. The people had finally had enough and they wanted the BIU to behave.

The weight of public opinion did not influence the BIU. It took a tough court order to get the BIU thinking. But public opinion set the stage for action and it can continue to do just that. The public does not want Bermudians abused by employers but it does not want Bermuda run by the BIU and it does not want its livelihood endangered or the recession made worse. The public should continue to make that very clear.