Supermarket on Union Square is bad news for its 1,200 members and especially for the Bermuda Industrial Union. The Co-Op Supermarket is seen by the public as a failed BIU business and that is enforced by the fact that the BIU is the major creditor of the Co-Op. Since most grocery stores in Bermuda make money, it is difficult to see how a Co-Op, with a built in membership clientele, actually went heavily into debt.

The responsibility of the members of the Co-Op for its debts is unclear but it is not a limited liability company under the law and it may be that its officers are legally responsible for the debt of over $1.4 million.

Of that $1.4 million some $483,000 is owed by the Co-Op to the BIU, a large part of that being a loan and the rest bills which went unpaid to the BIU.

This, of course, is money which has come out of the pockets and the dues of members of the BIU and, given the BIU's ties to the Co-Op, may never be repaid. Since many of the 1,200 Co-Op members are probably also BIU members they have suffered a double deficit.

It would appear from the creditors' list that the private importing sector was quite generous to the Co-Op in terms of extending credit. Wholesalers BDC Ltd., Butterfield and Vallis and their new acquisition Winter-Cookson, Petty are owed another $350,000 which would indicate that they allowed the Co-Op a good line of credit -- which they must now regret.

But the real concern is the money owed to the public purse in terms of about $105,900 in taxes and $40,300 in social insurance owed to Government. That would indicate that a BIU supported Co-Op was not looking after the interests of its employees. That seems to us to be cause for alarm.

In this newspaper yesterday, there was a story in the Business section in which a former Co-Op employee alleged that laid-off workers thought thousands of dollars were going toward their pensions and medical insurance payments when in fact the money was used to keep the Co-Op afloat. If that is true, and we have no means of knowing if it is true or not, then the Co-Op may well have been trading after it was broke. The lack of payment of taxes and social insurance to Government says that money which basically belongs to the employees must have been going somewhere.

It is important to remember that these workers were members of the BIU and members of the Co-Op and one anonymous worker has claimed, "For the workers it's a slap in the face.'' The matter is further confused because of the Progressive Labour Party's close association with the Bermuda Industrial Union and the fact that the chairman of the Co-Op, Victor Fishington, is also chairman of the PLP.

As long as this appeared to be just the collapse of a supermarket it did not attract an undue amount of attention, but it now seems to be growing into both a financial and political problem of some proportions.

Clearly, if workers and small shareholders had this problem with a private enterprise supermarket, the BIU and the PLP would be irate and demanding action, care and compensation. The BIU and the PLP have been silent on the Co-Op problems and it is not very comfortable to think that they are treating Co-Op employees very differently simply because the BIU itself is heavily involved.