Bermuda’s unions will mark the 40th anniversary of the 1981 general strike next month as the fight for a living wage continues.

Chris Furbert, the president of the Bermuda Industrial Union, told the Hamilton Rotary Club that the strike happened as hospital staff and Government workers battled for a living wage at a time of rapid inflation.

He said: “It’s interesting that we have had conversations over the last five years about living wages.”

Mr Furbert added the cost of living in Bermuda was $299 a week in 1981, but Government workers earned only $212 a week.

Mr Furbert said: “The hospital workers were actually in a worse shape than the Government workers.”

He added the Government had offered workers a raise, bit would have meant employees would still make $55 a week less than the cost of living.

BIU members and hospital staff downed tools in April 1981, but the dispute escalated on May 5 when the Bermuda Union of Teachers, the Electrical Supply Trade Union and others joined the strike.

Hotels closed and crowds of people blocked access to the causeway and the airport before the strike ended on May 7.

Mr Furbert said that Sir David Gibbons, the Premier at the time, had “thrown down the gauntlet” and the people of Bermuda came together in response.

He added the main lesson from the experience was the need for both sides in a dispute to compromise.

Mr Furbert said: “I think the lesson we have learnt and what the Government should understand is there has to be a better way to reach a resolution – there has to be a give and take

“In recent times we talk about how we can get a win-win, and these are the sorts of things we have to continue to do.

“We are not always going to get our way and the employer is not going to get everything their way.”

Glenn Fubler of community group Imagine Bermuda said the strike put Bermuda’s workers in the global spotlight.

He highlighted an interview with writer and social commentator Alvin Williams, who told the New York Times that at the time of the strike he worked for the Post Office, was a bartender and also worked as a janitor at the Bermuda Bakery to make ends meet.

Mr Fubler added: “Even with three jobs he was struggling to keep his head above water.”

Betty Ann Caesar, the president of the Bermuda Trade Union Congress, said it was important to remember the past to avoid making the same mistakes again.

Ms Caesar said the general strike happened before she was born, but she had spoken to older workers about the “eye opening” experience.

She added: “These are things that we would not like to repeat.”

Mr Fubler said the anniversary commemoration would start on May 5 and continue for the rest of the month with webinars and the screening of a new documentary about the event.

He added: “This is a celebration on the part of the entire community. We want people to be interested in this part of our shared history.”