Just how the Progressive Labour Party government handles industrial strife has always been a critical question for the party.Does its natural trust and history with the labour movement and trade unions reduce confrontation and enable good decisions to be made for the benefit of all? Or does the tail (the trade union) wag the dog (the labour party)?Premier Paula Cox’s administration was tested on this question for the first time last week.A bus driver of 18 years experience was placed on sick leave but still showed up to do a part time job at the bus depot, no less, apparently filling in for a vacationing friend. It has been argued that while his injury prevented him from driving, it did not stop him from pumping gas. But it could equally be argued that while being paid to be ill, he was still sufficiently able to work to collect his pay for the part-time job.Compounding matters was the fact that this was the second time it had happened, and on the first occasion the driver had been terminated, only to have the termination withdrawn and replaced with a two-week suspension.As a result, the Public Transportation Board dismissed the driver for gross misconduct. The union disagreed. This is not unusual, and it is for disputes of this kind that the whole panoply of arbitration and third party mediation has been constructed.But in this case, rather than go that route, the Bermuda Industrial Union’s bus drivers went on strike.This breached an agreement the BIU and president Chris Furbert made with former Premier Dr Ewart Brown to stop wildcat strikes and to give notice of strike action. That agreement was made in return for the Government in other words, the taxpayer forgiving the $6.8 million the union owed the Government for performance bond it provided for the Berkeley project.At that time, in May 2009, Dr Brown said: “If you have a problem, let’s talk like grown-ups before downing tools like something less than adults. Why not come to the table before rushing to a picket line?“Whatever the problem in your workplace let’s find a resolution together before we inconvenience the public. That is what taxpayers want. And I hasten to add, it is at least what taxpayers deserve.”And Mr. Furbert, already hedging, said: “The membership has said to me, we will give your office, as well as the executive board, 48 to 72 hours to deal with those sort of things.“His (Dr. Brown’s) point is well taken that dropping tools over everything and anything has to change and that’s what we put to the membership.”And yet that is exactly what happened last week and when Transport Minister Terry Lister stood firm and sought the legal power to compel the drivers to go back to work, the union ignored the directive, and according to Mr Lister, not only continued to strike but threatened to expand it to include other Transport Ministry workers, and possibly others.That apparently, was something the Government could not contemplate, so it gave in and agreed to reinstate the bus driver. For its trouble, the driver will be suspended for one more week than the four weeks the union demanded.Leaving aside the pros and cons of the driver’s case, it seems obvious that this case should have been dealt with via arbitration with both sides able to put their cases.Instead, a Department’s manager and a Government Minister have been undermined, thousands of people have been inconvenienced and there must now be serious questions about the Government’s ability to handle a crisis.Did the PLP’s close ties with the BIU enable a good decision for the benefit of all to be made? The answer has to be no. In this case, the tail wagged the dog.