This is the second part of a series examining labour in Bermuda. The Royal Gazette talks to Mr. Malcolm Dixon, executive director of the Bermuda Employer's Council.

Pragmatism and realism must guide all negotiations between trade unions and management because the economy cannot support exorbitant demands, says Bermuda Employer's Council executive director Mr. Malcolm Dixon.

Gone forever are the days of confrontation that characterised the 1960s or the distrust of management that was often an element of relations in the 1970s.

Moreover, the opulence of the 1980s -- which allowed workers to secure impressive agreements and high wages -- disappeared in the 1990s with the recession.

Tolerance, dialogue and sensitivity will regulate negotiations between trade unions and management in the future and this motivated less by benevolence as it is by pure economics.

"In the mid-1980s employers were managing by appeasement,'' Mr. Dixon explained. "We had been through the general strike in 1981 and we didn't want to rock the boat.

"Things were booming and the whole economy was moving. We didn't want it disrupted again so we gave the workers what they wanted to a large degree but we had the money to do it and still be viable.

"Since the late 1980s and beginning of the 1990s we have been unable to meet the high demands for benefits and wages. The money simply is not there but in many cases the unions' demands are still at pre-recession levels.'' Mr. Dixon said employers have had to get lean, trim the fat from their organisations and become more streamlined.

Consequently, they have had to lay off workers and require those still employed to be more efficient and productive.

"Trade unions have had to do this too,'' he added. "They have had to take a step back out of necessity and trim the fat just like we have done.'' As a result, Mr. Dixon said that trade unions and management have grown closer and are more alike then they ever were in the past because of the soft economy.

This has filtered down to the workers, he said, who are now concerned about job security and are less willing to strike.

"With tourism and the retail sector still experiencing difficulties, the threat of a strike, once a trump card for union leaders, no longer has the same effect as it had in past years.

"Employers are having difficulties and workers can threaten to strike all they want but the economy is in a serious way and trade unions have to start to be sensitive to that. There is no other choice.'' Historically, (pre-1960) Mr. Dixon said employers set their own policies which led to conflict because some workers were given better benefits than others who had almost none.

With the rise of vigorous trade union activity in the 1940s and 1950s employers were forced to develop their own voice as they tried to grapple with the changing times.

In 1960 the Bermuda Employer's Council (BEC) was formed to represent and advise employers on labour matters.

"In the early 1960s the trade union movement was gaining strength so the employers developed the BEC which was the first registered trade union for the employer.

"Legislation requires a vote to be taken before a union can go on strike and employers have a similar ability which is called a lock out but this also requires a vote.

"If we did not have an organisation that had a mechanism to vote for a lock out if needed, such action would have been illegal.'' Among its many duties the BEC assists employers with collective bargaining, training, immigration policy, employment conditions and codes of practice.

Mr. Dixon said that workers in the 1960s were agitating for improvements to their working conditions and basic terms of employment such as maternity leave, paid vacations and sick leave.

From an employer's standpoint they needed standards to cope with these new demands and much of the conflict came in determining what those standards were to be.

With the 1970s era of black power, pride and nationalism, Mr. Dixon said workers were more conscious of issues of race and fairness and wanted to ensure that their humanity was respected.

Trade unionism, he said, went a long way to spelling out and setting the boundaries for discussions on these issues.

Mr. Dixon said the Labour Relations Act of 1975 helped to the extent that workers saw it as a vehicle to reach resolutions but it was new and conflict and strike action continued throughout the rest of the 1970s.

"The 1980s belonged to the unions,'' he continued. "It was a period when they flexed their muscles. In 1981 the workers said enough is enough and they lost their temper.

"Their attitude was that employers were going to listen once and for all.'' After 1981, there was much negotiation going on at all levels and the economy took off. Tourists were arriving in high numbers and employers were able to make bigger settlements and improve conditions in the workplace.

"Employers and the economy were doing well and the unions were demanding a bigger share for their members which is a natural reaction.'' Meantime Government, employers and the unions decided to assess the labour landscape after the general strike, which led to the Green Paper of 1983. It was followed in 1986 by a White Paper.

"But the booming 1980s has given way to the Recession of the early 1990s and this has forced everyone to have a second hard look at the ways things are proceeding.

"The Task Force on Employment was formed and has made recommendations so that we can achieve better understanding and sensitivity and a calming of tempers.

"There has been a shift away from crisis management, to retraining workers so that they can retain their jobs.

"Things have improved. We have made tremendous strides in the last 30 years.

I expect to see more summits and conferences between trade union leaders and employers so that we can continue to improve understanding and settle differences as they arise.

"Good labour relations is not an absence of conflict, it is managing conflicts in a such a way that all parities can win.'' Mr. Malcolm Dixon