Hoteliers have hit out at a businessman for his remarks about the industry, which they claimed were years out of date.

The Hotel Employers of Bermuda and the Bermuda Hotel Association slammed Mailboxes Unlimited president Stephen Thomson for his comments on the past actions of the Bermuda Industrial Union in the hospitality industry.

They said the remarks about union power making operating expensive and that workers needed another union option were steeped in the past and bore no relevance to the modern world.

In addition, HEB chief executive John Harvey said the negative statements did no good to the industry and detracted from the many good things going on at present.

"I thought it was untimely, we have grown up since Stephen Thomson's career.

We have got to move on and put these things behind us,'' he said.

"Mr. Thomson obviously did not inquire with anyone in the hotel industry, who would have shared with him the productive and positive relationship that exists with the BIU, but instead revisited past incidents that the industry has long put behind us.'' During his speech to Hamilton Rotary Club on Tuesday, Mr. Thomson said the BIU had created an "us and them'' mentality with workers, hampering efforts to make hotels profitable.

He cited a number of incidents in the past when union agreements had put restrictive practices in place, adding that the union took dues from everyone, regardless of whether they wanted to be included in the membership.

And he said the BIU had blocked workers from carrying out other duties, as occurred in other countries, so it could collect more dues.

In addition, he added that there should be other unions to offer workers a choice in representation.

Mr. Harvey said he had had several calls from members who were upset at the remarks.

"I would have thought the Rotary Club was about new challenges, it was clearly a smokescreen talking about the BIU when it was about things in the past that he experienced personally.

"We learnt from these things.'' Bermuda Hotel Association president Billy Griffith said he endorsed Mr.

Harvey's comments and said it was unfortunate that Mr. Thomson had made the comments when so many strides had been made in the past few years.

BIU president Derrick Burgess welcomed the HEB statement. He said he (Mr.

Thomson) was "way out of date and in a different world''.

Mr. Harvey cited the signing of the hotel collective bargaining agreement this year on schedule and other developments such as the gain sharing scheme, as a signal of the positive moves.

"These things don't happen overnight. Yes we are having challenges, if you represent an industry that is highly staffed, you have got to expect things to go wrong, but we are working with them to work things out.

"It is very counterproductive for anyone to make public statements which do not accurately reflect the current relationship with the hotel industry and the BIU, let's hope it is not repeated.''