Bermuda Industrial Union members may strike over dismissals from four major hotels which have been outstanding for the last four years.

BIU President Mr. Ottiwell Simmons said the union was advising its hotel members to prepare for an all-out strike after it received news that the court had restrained Government from forming an arbitration board to deal with five cases of wrongful dismissal going back to November 1991.

He said the strike would come if the Hotel Employers Board refused to accept legislation which gave Labour Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness the right to set up an arbitration board.

And he said the union was asking its other members to watch for developments in the matter as they could also be called upon to take industrial action in support of the hotel workers.

HEB chief executive officer Mr. John Harvey said Mr. Simmons was being "woefully unreasonable'' and was "way off base''.

He said it seemed that Mr. Simmons was coercing the judicial system by saying if he did not get his own way, he would consider striking.

He added that he believed Mr. Simmons was "preempting'' the court's decision because he had not heard that they had made one. If there had been a decision, Mr. Harvey explained, his lawyers would have told him.

Over the past four years the BIU had been holding meetings with the Southampton Princess, Sonesta Beach, Marriott's Castle Harbour and Belmont hotels and the Labour Department in an attempt to solve the disputes, said Mr.

Simmons.

He said the matters were sent to arbitration under the Labour Relations Amendment Act of 1991 and the cases were due to start being heard yesterday.

The employers objected to resolving the dispute in this manner which is why they took out a restraining order, explained Mr. Simmons.

However Mr. Harvey stressed that the hotels had every right to pursue the matter through the courts.

They filed a writ in Supreme Court earlier this month against the Ministry of Labour, Home Affairs and Public Safety to stop the matter of the dismissals going to arbitration as they believed it was unreasonable to raise a matter they thought had been settled.

At that time Mr. Harvey stressed that the hotels wanted the matter "quashed'' because they could not deal with new business while somebody brought up old matters.

Mr. Simmons said the union was concerned that the employers would be successful in getting the court to award an injunction in a case where the parties were seeking a remedy to a dispute.

He added that courts had awarded injunctions to halt strikes, picketing and boycotts but said he had never heard of an injunction being awarded which restrained Government from solving a dispute in expectation of an escalation of the dispute or a strike.