Two days of widespread industrial action prompted by the sacking of unionised hotel staff came to an end after a climbdown by the resort’s managers.

The dispute, which began after ten Fairmont Hamilton Princess hotel workers were made redundant two weeks ago, erupted into a full-blown walkout by hundreds of Bermuda Industrial Union workers on Wednesday.

But after an afternoon of protest marches that brought public transport to a standstill, Fairmont managers contacted the union on Wednesday night with a fresh offer that guaranteed future jobs for four of the dismissed staff.

The news was relayed to BIU members at a packed meeting yesterday morning, after which all staff returned to their duties.

Following that meeting, which had to held at the New Testament Church of God on Dundonald Street to accommodate hundreds of workers who attended, BIU president Chris Furbert gave a press conference during which he described the resolution as “a victory for the people” and the righting of “an injustice”.

He confirmed that, with many public services set to be suspended yesterday, hotel representatives e-mailed a new proposal to the union on Wednesday night. Although that initial offer needed “tweaking”, protracted negotiations that went into yesterday morning finally brought an agreement and all strike action was called off.

Under the agreement, four of the five unionised staff who were made redundant will go back to work on May 1. A fifth unionised staff member asked not to be represented in the talks.

“The issue concerning the bar porters has been sorted out to a degree of satisfaction to them — they have accepted it,” Mr Furbert said.

“They are guaranteed four jobs now — three porters and one dining room captain. The other member that was BIU hasn’t sought any representation whatsoever so all we’ve done is represent the four members that came to us for representation.”

Mr Furbert added that the four staff members will also receive health insurance while they remain out of work.

The hotel had informed staff of the redundancies on January 22, and they came into effect just two days later — although staff were given one month’s pay. The union maintained that the action broke the collective bargaining agreement because it should have been consulted before any redundancies were made. It asked for the staff to be reinstated temporarily until the union had been given an opportunity to discuss alternatives with hotel executives.

Hamilton Princess staff walked off the job on Tuesday after management refused to budge, and staff at the resort’s sister hotel, the Fairmont Southampton, took similar action on Wednesday, when other divisions of the BIU also became involved. That show of solidarity appeared to break the stalemate, with management shifting its position before the dispute dragged on into a third day.

Yesterday Mr Furbert questioned why hotel managers could not have come up with an alternative deal earlier in the dispute.

And he described the incident as an “eye-opener” for the country and a warning to bosses that they should not take advantage of staff.

“What we have said to them [management] from day one is, why is it you can’t offer them some kind of other employment,” Mr Furbert said

“We said you have actually taken these three young brothers and thrown them under the bus. You haven’t even said, ‘well maybe we can give you a job here or in another department’. You have made them redundant without any offer of employment so I can’t speak to whether or not they could have done this yesterday or last week, I think the management team needs to answer that question.

“I certainly hope that what has happened over the last two days should be an eye-opener for the country. People are getting tired, they’ve had enough, and when you see this kind of support galvanised in a matter of a day and a bit, naturally it should be of concern to the Government, it should be of concern to the country. You simply can’t keep telling people that the economy is this and we’re trying to get hotel business, but you can’t do it at the expense of taking advantage of people. You simply can’t do that.”

Mr Furbert denied that this week’s action was a prelude for further walkouts which could be in the pipeline if Government imposes public sector cuts in its upcoming Budget.

“We weren’t the ones that made three bar porters redundant,” he said.

“This happened on January 24 so I can tell you that, when I was having a conversation with my members, I wasn’t even thinking about the Budget. What we have done and the reason we’ve done it is because there was an injustice done. That injustice had to be put right. So whether it was a week before the Budget six weeks before the Budget, the Budget was neither here nor there.”

Yesterday, The Royal Gazette e-mailed a spokesman for the Fairmont group asking why it did not agree to re-instate the workers earlier in the dispute.

No response was received to that question, but the spokesman did issue a statement on behalf of Fairmont Hamilton Princess general manager Len Czarnecki which read: “We are pleased that a resolution has been reached between The Fairmont Hamilton Princess and the Bermuda Industrial Union and we are now able to return our focus to serving our guests.

“The next several years will be exciting for The Fairmont Hamilton Princess. The $90 million investment in the property will help us raise the profile of Bermuda as a destination and help create dynamic new tourism opportunities.

“We look forward to working with our many partners in the community on creating new jobs and developing hospitality career training.”