strike any less important. Make no mistake, this is a very significant strike because it came without warning at a time when many people had come to believe that large, disruptive strikes were a thing of the past in Bermuda. It did seem that Bermuda had learned the simple lesson that strikes which disrupt tourism hurt the workers first and foremost. The sad truth is that hotel workers are already threatened by the visitor slowdown.

It does seem ironic that the wildcat strike dominates the news on a day when it is announced that January ... January ... tourism was up by just over 17 percent. We are now in the early days of March and strikes of any kind which inconvenience visitors almost always guarantee a poor tourist season.

Travel agents discourage travel to destinations where their clients may be inconvenienced.

The strike is made more significant because of the wide representation among the strikers. This is not a strike by a small section of the Bermuda Industrial Union but a strike with participants ranging from bus drivers to hotel employees and from postal workers to garage workers.

The wildcat strike had to have some considerable organisation to bring out workers from all over the Island. Officials have been tight-lipped about a BIU general meeting last week at which plans may have been made.

However there are also indications that this could be a push from the membership and not from the hierarchy of the union. BIU President Derrick Burgess has been quoted as saying on Tuesday night, "All I can tell you right now is that the members have requested that officials attend an important meeting...with an agenda to discuss the future of the workers in Bermuda and the future of the union.'' There has been speculation, and we put it no higher than speculation, that there is a split in the union membership between the followers of President Burgess and those who support vice president and former dockers chief Chris Furbert. If that is true, this could be a contest for power within the union itself.

It is not unusual for an organisation or a business to undergo a period of turmoil and to chew up and spit out several leaders in the wake of long service by a very strong leader. Clearly Ottiwell Simmons was a strong and charismatic leader and it may well take the BIU some time to settle down to new leadership.

It may be that this is muscle flexing or a power struggle or it may be worker frustration at a long period of economic uncertainty. Whatever the cause, it does seem that the grievances could have been talked out rather than walked out, for the sake of the workers and the Country.

Many people hoped that 1997 would be the year when tourism turned around and Bermuda's already strong economy boomed with the revival of tourism. That will remain a dream as soon as US travel agents hear that there is "labour trouble in Bermuda''. Bermuda has a long history of "shooting itself in the foot'' just as things begin to look good.