The warring sides in the ACE building construction dispute were forced to the table yesterday when Government stepped in as angry trade union members took to the streets in support of sacked Precision Construction workers.

Home Affairs Minister Paula Cox has set up a Trade Disputes Tribunal, which has legally binding powers, after appearing to blame Precision Construction for the escalation of the dispute with the Bermuda Industrial Union.

Further industrial action is now illegal because the Tribunal has been set up.

She said: "In response to a request by the BIU, the Labour Relations Office has attempted to bring both sides together in a meeting to try to settle the dispute.

"This proved unsuccessful because the management of Precision Construction has been unwilling to meet.'' Earlier hundreds of BIU members marched in the midday heat in a show of solidarity, singing the refrain: "We shall not be moved, we shall not be used''.

Precision-Somers joint venture company was in no mood to back down either and announced they had obtained an injunction from the Supreme Court over damages caused by work stoppage.

Precision-Somers' spokesman Roger Russell said he welcomed the Government's move towards arbitration.

He said: "We believe this is the appropriate place for the determination of the groundless complaints by the Union and by the dismissed employees, who were not union employees and were properly dismissed.'' He went on to claim the company had met four times with BIU officials but there had been no sign of progress.

Mr. Russell declined to say who he had met or whether they had been BIU leaders.

Despite yesterday's mass protest BIU First Vice President Chris Furbert was unwilling to talk to The Royal Gazette .

When contacted last night at the PHC social club Mr. Furbert said: "You got me out of a meeting to talk about that? I've absolutely no comment to make.'' Workers had gone on the march after a general membership meeting at BIU Headquarters which resulted in public transportation grinding to a halt. At 1 p.m., the members marched to the ACE building, returning to the union base at around 2 p.m. After a 45-minute meeting the demonstrators went back to work.

Buses were back on their routes in time for school pick-ups and ferries were operational before the evening rush hour. Garbage collection will be completed today.

Workers from the Post Office, PTB, Marine & Ports, parks, the hospitals, Works and Engineering, the Bermuda Telephone Company, Stevedoring Services and the construction industry, were among the demonstrators.

The majority of BTC's 420 workers stopped work. A BTC spokesman said during the action: "Services have been affected. Some workers are out in support.

Arbitration order "We are covering the most essential areas and people will experience a slight degradation in service and we ask for their patience.'' Marine and Ports Director Ron Ross said all but one of his 15 workers had walked out, causing a shutdown of ferry services between 10.30 a.m. and 3 p.m.

He said not all had immediately obeyed the call to return to work when the action ended in mid-afternoon.

At 3 p.m. Dan Simmons, Assistant Director of Public Transportation, said: "We managed and are now back on schedule.'' Raymonde Dill, chairman of the Bermuda Hospitals Board, said that the day went "relatively smoothly'' at King Edward VII Memorial and St. Brendan's hospitals.

"We met with all staff yesterday afternoon and this morning (Tuesday) and had a commitment from them that our key areas would be covered,'' he said.

"We had a strong compliment of staff that stayed and helped us through the lunch period then went to their meeting,'' he continued.

"We tried to accommodate the desires of as many unionised workers to attend their meeting as possible and things went smoothly for us because we talked about it and planned in advance.'' Most Island hotels reported no disruption from the day's activities.

At the Sonesta, between 15 and 25 workers left the South Shore property to attend the meeting.

A spokesman said it did not affect the service offered to vacationers and reported everyone back at work later in the day.

Other large properties, the Hamilton Princess and Elbow Beach, said no affects had been felt by the meeting.

However the picture was different at Stevedoring Services. President Michael Lohan said: "Workers attended this meeting at BIU this morning, and, through lack of manpower, we were forced to close the docks.'' Shadow Home Affairs Minister Michael Dunkley welcomed the intervention by the Minister in forcing the two parties to the Trade Disputes Tribunal. He said: "It is a powerful piece of legislation. I think it's the right decision. The decision is something both parties must live by.

He added: "If it is not abided by then the Minister must use the law to uphold the decision.

"We've seen visitors standing at bus stops and children coming out to find there's no bus. We must have more responsible ways of looking at situations like this.'' Raymond Hainey, Tim Greenfield and Gareth Finighan contributed to this report.