A disagreement between dock workers and management left the docks at a standstill for several hours yesterday while workers met with union officials. Bermuda Industrial Union leader Chris Furbert said dock workers walked off the job after a worker was given a two-week suspension.

"Two workers had some words with each other and management felt that some of the things said were discriminatory, so they suspended the worker who made the remarks and gave him one year probation," Mr. Furbert said.

"He didn't think that was right, and so there were meetings between management and workers, and as a result, the worker agreed to apologise to his co-worker and receive a warning."

Peter Aldrich, General Manager of Stevedoring Services Ltd. said work at the docks started up again at around 2 p.m. "These sort of disagreements happen at every business," he said. "It's just unfortunate that it happened today."