Industrial Union to be the power broker in the Country, where should we go? We should start by remembering that Bermuda is not a manufacturing country. We do not produce goods which people need to buy.

We are a service country dealing in a highly competitive world. What we sell has to be appealing and enjoyable or it will not be bought, especially at the price we charge the quality end of the market. If we want to continue one of the highest standards of living in the world then we have to deliver efficient quality service. Recent events may indicate that the Bermuda Industrial Union has an agenda which does not suit the aspirations and interests of the majority of Bermudians who enjoy the benefits Bermuda supplies and who do not want those benefits killed off. There are also signs that a political party which supports the BIU cannot guarantee Bermuda's financial success or the good life Bermudians are so accustomed to simply because the BIU's actions conflict with success.

Bermudians do not want other Bermudians abused and they do not want workers badly treated by employers. Contrary to the myth which is often spread, there is no group in Bermuda determined to destroy trade unions. There is general agreement on the value of trade unions and on the enormous contribution of Bermudian labour to Bermuda. There are disagreements about the way unions should function and there are natural confrontations between management and labour but that is all. Public opinion changes but there is no plot.

We think the recession has brought home to Bermudians just how good we have had it in Bermuda and just how much a well-run Bermuda has been able to provide. We think Bermudians know their lives are better than most and now see that good life threatened by a failure to pull together and make the best of a bad deal in this recession. We think Bermudians in all walks of life are beginning to see the BIU as an angry spoiler bent on power and not on the good of the people.

We think it is time now for Bermuda to protect its people from groups which do not put the good of the Country above self-interest. Bermuda needs comprehensive employment legislation, not bits and pieces of laws passed under pressure and in times of crisis, but a basic law to meet the needs of a successful service industry country which very much wants the rights and dignity of Bermudians protected. The law must be designed to stop Bermuda being strike prone and so that interruptions of service which drive away visitors are the very last resort because those interruptions impact on everyone, labour first. We must be careful that new law is aimed at reconciliation because you cannot use the law to prevent labour unrest any more than you can legislate happy marriages.

We should start with supervised secret ballots because there can be no objection to the democratic process. The decision making on how to exercise union power, and there is power in unions, should be given back to the members. Who can object to Power To The People? Too often in the BIU the few have dominated the many and gone against the wishes of the general membership, and of Mr. and Mrs. Bermuda.