The Bermuda Hotel Association, Bermuda Industrial Union and Government worked together to help the ailing tourism industry and ensure workers were not unduly penalised by a wage freeze it emerged at the BIU annual banquet.

On Friday night BIU President Chris Furbert said the three organisations worked together to find a compromise after the BHA approached the union to say it would have to implement a wage freeze due to low visitor arrivals numbers.

The union and BHA were able to come up with a solution thanks to government involvement Mr. Furbert said.

"[BHA Chairman]John Harvey and his team came to us saying, due to the economy, the hotel workers would have to take a freeze.

"But we were worried about payroll tax, that workers would still be paying bills and taxes but not having a cost of living increase. So the Government came on board and agreed to waiving the payroll tax.

"This could never have taken place without the support of the Government."

And he acknowledged the Government's decision to forgive the BIU of the $6.8 million owed under a bond due when the Berkeley school project failed.

"Government finally came to the BIU and released the BIU out of the bond," he said. "Thank you very much for that."

He added the move had avoided years of arbitration.

Early in the night Premier Ewart Brown asked the banquet guests: "How many of you remember anything special about the day May 14, 2009? If you are a member or supporter of the BIU remember the Progressive Labour Party forgave the BIU its obligation of the bond.

"When history is written it will be said the PLP did enjoy a close relationship with the BIU and we intend to continue and nurture that relationship to one of even greater strength."

The two men spoke during the annual banquet which also saw Princeton University Professor Melissa Harris Lacewell speak.

Ms Harris Lacewell, an American, spoke of the age of Obama. She said that racism did not end when Barack Obama became President of the US.

"I think the age of Obama is about allowing us to think more collectively about the division and suffering that so many have endured," she said.

She also noted that Mr. Obama was attempting to renegotiate the social contract between a government and its people by making health care a right to all, regardless of their prosperity.

And added that she believed Hurricane Katrina was a turning point for many as they saw the Government calling black American's trapped in New Orleans "refugees" rather than fellow Americans.