WE yielded to an overpowering urge two days ago to visit one of our old bailiwicks, the headquarters of the Bermuda Industrial Union. And news-wise, it turned out to be a most productive visit, especially enabling me to get a line-up on some of the grassroots women of Bermuda who have been making a name for themselves.

It may not be generally known, but for a number of years I was a top executive of the BIU, being its second Treasurer and later its Secretary-General. Those were the years when the Union was operated out of Beulah, the combined surgery and residence on Victoria Street, Hamilton of the late Dr. E.F. Gordon, MCP, and the fiery father of the organised labour movement in Bermuda.

The first Treasurer was the late Walter Robinson. In 1949, Mr. Robinson resigned because he went to London to study law and embark on a career that led to his becoming a Member of Parliament, Leader of the then-Opposition Progressive Labour Party and subsequently a puisne judge.

Dr. Gordon resigned his office as President, and acted as Treasurer for the next several months, when he became Secretary-General, proposing at the same time that this writer become Treasurer. That was at a mass meeting in 1950. Five years later when Dr. Gordon passed away, this writer filled the void as Secretary General.

At that same meeting, the Union voted to acquire the equity of the then declining Bermuda Workers Association in the property the BWA owned on the corner of Dundonald and Parliament Streets. That is where the Union's gas station is situated.

Smack in the middle of that property was a ramshackle carpenter's shop, which serving a dual purpose became the BIU's first and very Spartan headquarters. It was, in fact, the little acorn that blossomed into the multi-million-dollar complex that dominates what we now call Union Square. This week as I sat in the air-conditioned comfort of the office of the Secretary General of the Union (the title of which is now General Secretary), I could only marvel at what I saw and heard, and at the environment in which it was all happening with such skill and quiet efficiency.

I tried to strike a balance as to what was more impressive, the people, or the place. I didn't even bother to focus on the brainpower that had been engaged down through the years in securing and maintaining benefits not just for the thousands of workers belonging to the BIU, but all workers in Bermuda.

However, what hit home most, was the extent to which the BIU, more than taking care of the home front, has been exporting its expertise for the benefit of trade unionists in many areas of the world outside of Bermuda. Nonchalantly, I gleaned from Mrs. Helena Molly Burgess, who has served as General Secretary of the BIU for the past 19 years, that she would be leaving on Thursday for Geneva, where she will discharge her duties as first vice-president of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Association (IUF).

IUF is a Geneva-based international trade union federation composed of 334 trade unions in 120 countries with an affiliated membership of 2.5 million members. Molly attended its annual conference in Malmo, Sweden as a representative of the Caribbean Regional Conference of IUF. The Caribbean group, at its annual meeting in Grenada in last year, elected her to a five-year term as its first vice-president. She had served as second vice-president during the previous two years.

While Molly attends the Administrative Committee meeting of IUF, BIU president Derrick Burgess, MP, and the Union's Research Officer, Senartor Calvin Smith, will be at an International Labour Conference in the Bahamas to deal with problems associated with the Free Trade Association of the Americas (FTAA). Sen. Smith has been invited by the Bahamas Government to be one of the presenters at the conference, which runs from October 28 to November 2.

Meanwhile, yet another BIU official, Mrs. Kathy Landy, will be leaving this weekend for London, where a meeting takes place of the Women's Campaign Task Force of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF).

Mrs. Landy is the Secretary of the Bus Operators and Allied Workers Division of the BIU. In August she was elected as the new Women's Representative for Road Transport Workers of ITF at the World Congress and Women's Conference held in Vancouver, Canada.

Eighty-six countries were represented at the conference, which drew 574 delegates from 296 trade unions, 355 advisers, 200 observers and 47 interpreters. Mrs. Landy said the fact that she was selected as the women's representative from all of those other delegates showed the worldwide respect the BIU enjoys. ITF involves workers from such areas as civil aviation, dockers, fisheries, road transport, tourism and railways.

Mrs. Landy worked as a secretary before becoming a taxi operator and then a bus operator.

Also on the labour front, I learned that the BIU's new Chief Organiser, George Scott, and Craig Daniels returned this week from a seminar and conference of the International Federation of Building Workers held in Curacao.