tourism industry.

Both sides in the dispute appear to have reasonable grounds for being unhappy.

Sonesta management refused an employee's request for vacation and the employee then fell ill over the same lengthy period. Any employer would be right to be suspicious.

But the employee was able to produce a doctor's certificate showing she had been ill. The union says this should be enough and that the woman's subsequent dismissal was unfair.

Both sides have strong arguments. It would appear that this would be an ideal situation for a grievance to be filed and for the issue to be mediated.

Now the employee has been reinstated and a range of issues raised by the workers will be addressed by management. That means the hotel cannot operate normally.

It is impossible to judge who is right and wrong in the case.

But it should be clear that Bermuda has lost because the people who have been inconvenienced as a result are not the workers or even the hotel's management, but its guests.

The tourism industry will never recover if Bermuda builds a reputation as a place where industrial action is commonplace.

Many people hoped that the efforts of the Monitor Group ,in conjunction with local partners CAG Ltd., Government, the hotel owners and the Bermuda Industrial Union, would result in better labour relations. That may still turn out to be the case, but the incident at Sonesta shows Bermuda has a long way to go yet.

Workers have a right to representation and they have a right to withdraw their labour. Management has rights too; to hire and to fire and to make the best decisions they can for the viability of their companies.

Labour disputes occur when these rights clash, but the answer cannot be to withdraw labour, especially in the height of the tourism season.

Bermuda's visitors are innocent victims of industrial action, but they can take their own revenge -- by never returning.