two days was called off yesterday by the Bermuda Industrial Union.

It followed management's agreement for a secret ballot on union recognition.

The ballot among the 40 striking workers will be run next week by the Labour Ministry.

Meanwhile, the men will report for work on Monday at the incinerator site on North Shore, Devonshire.

Yesterday's breakthrough followed a 40-minute afternoon meeting between BIU president Mr. Ottiwell Simmons MP, and Mr. Tage Hanegaard, acting manager of E. Pihl & Son -- the Danish builders involved in the project.

Also there was Mr. Edwin Wilson, the acting Labour relations officer, who mediated.

The unionised workers claim they have been receiving below BIU scale wages.

They also accuse the firm of refusing to pay its share of pension and insurance contributions.

In addition, they protest employees hurt on the site receive only half pay for six weeks.

Mr. Simmons emerged happy from yesterday's talks with management.

He said he was completely confident the workers would vote for union recognition.

"In the expectation the ballot will be favourable to us, negotiations will start thereafter.

"There is no doubt about the outcome of the ballot. The gate to the incinerator site was shut today.

"It indicates total support and solidarity for the union.'' Mr. Simmons said he expected and hoped the ballot would be held no later than Wednesday.

"There are a few mechanics involved in organising it,'' he said.

Mr. Hanegaard, whose firm won the bid to build the incinerator with local Gringley Construction Company Ltd, was refusing to comment yesterday.

Instead he referred questions to the Bermuda Employers' Council, which he recently joined.

Mr. Malcolm Dixon, the BEC's executive director, said: "Secret ballots are the perfectly normal way to decide on union recognition.

"It is the customary and normal practice in going about such things.'' Mr. Dixon agreed, however, management at one stage did not know whether union recognition at the site was necessary.

A Government spokesman said yesterday: "Our role is purely to act as a facilitator to bring the two sides together, and not in any other way to get involved.'' Earlier yesterday a five-man picket line roamed the entrance to the incinerator.

The placards bore such slogans as "How Could Government Do This!'' and "This Is Our Incinerator''.

Spokesman for the strikers, Mr. Richard Bailey, a carpenter, said the workers were in determined mood.

"We are going to stay here and hold this job up until some resolution, until some action is taken. We feel we have been treated unfairly.'' Mr. Bailey said he had had a fruitless ten-minute morning meeting with Mr.

Hanegaard.

"He has told us he does not want to recognise the union.'' The BIU's construction division head Mr. Kenyetta Young was critical of Labour Minister the Hon. John Irving Pearman's alleged inactivity over the dispute.

"I find it totally unacceptable that he says he can't do anything.'' Mr. Beresford Lewis, a steel fitter, said even the handful of foreign workers had downed tools.

"Work is completely at a standstill today,'' he said.

Mr. Lewis said workers' frustrations with management had been simmering since April.

LINE OF DEFIANCE -- Pickets brandish their placards outside the gate to the Tynes Bay incinerator yesterday.