arbitration after talks broke down.

Both sides will meet again tomorrow after yesterday's mediation session failed to find any common ground between management and the Bermuda Industrial Union.

Tomorrow's arbitration session will be binding and could be the last chance for an agreement to be reached.

BIU president Derrick Burgess said last night that he was disappointed a solution couldn't be found yesterday but blamed management for the breakdown.

He said there were two main sticking points raised by the BIU but Marine and Ports officials "wouldn't budge on them''.

"We were prepared to meet them but they wouldn't meet us,'' he said. "We were looking to get things sorted out, I was optimistic we could get things settled.'' He added that neither side came face to face during the session, which lasted nearly five hours.

Ferries and tugs continued working normally throughout the talks, which followed a two-day stoppage by 90 Marine and Ports staff on Thursday.

They staged a walk-out in protest over the return to work of tug pilot Kenneth Todd, absent for a year after a confrontation over the sinking of the Xing Da .