working since October without contracts. Some 40 employees of the BIU are involved. It appears that the BIU hierarchy may be resisting a new contract because it cannot afford to pay its workers higher wages.

This is not, of course, the first time that the BIU has behaved toward employees in a way it would condemn if private business was involved. As an example, the BIU has simply dismissed employees whom it considered difficult to deal with and there was no suggestion of industrial action against itself.

A unionised or even a non-unionised business which did that would have undergone the full wrath of the BIU hierarchy.

If a private business was dragging its feet over wage demands, the BIU would be busy saying that the business was anti-worker and that the business was refusing to settle demands it could well afford to pay. The double standard which the BIU applies to itself should cause great concern because it leaves the BIU's own workers unprotected.

"Do as we say, not as we do'' is not a very acceptable position for any public organisation and the BIU is a public organisation.

The BIU hierarchy has opinions on just about anything which happens in Bermuda. But on Monday it did not have an opinion on its troubled relations with its own workers. Yet the BIU President, Mr. Ottiwell Simmons MP, said on Monday only that the matter is in the hands of a committee and is being dealt with. The workers involved would, of course, be reluctant to say anything because the last time the BIU sacked five workers out of hand, one of the reasons for the sacking was that they had gone to the Press. The BIU objects to its workers going to the Press yet Mr. Simmons is a master at "going to the Press'' when there is a labour dispute in the private sector.

There may, however, be one benefit from the BIU dispute with its own workers.

The BIU may finally realise, if it is broke, that it is counter-productive to demand that employers continue to pay and pay when there is little to pay with. Maybe, just maybe, the BIU hierarchy will learn that from its own negotiations.

The recession and high wage settlements in recent years have placed many employers in Bermuda in a difficult financial position. Any number of businesses have behaved well and made efforts to keep their people working.

There is very little spare money and Bermudians are better off employed than laid off to compensate for high wages. The BIU has been reluctant to cooperate in keeping jobs because it has refused to recognise the impact of the recession on most employers. We think the BIU stand has added to unemployment.

Clearly BIU members are better off when they have a job, especially at a time when the BIU has announced that it has its cash tied up in real estate and cannot help its members despite their having made contributions to their union.

We think the BIU has to live up to its own standards and apply to itself that which it applies to other employers. A union employer has the same responsibilities as other employers. It also should do the best it can to keep its members employed at good but realistic wages which do not cause unemployment for other union members. A union has a duty to pay benefits to those who contribute.