THE rift between the Bermuda Industrial Union and the Government widened yesterday, after the Ministry of Works & Engineering was threatened with an injunction that would halt construction work at the new Berkeley school.

BIU subsidiary Union Asset Holdings (UAH) sent a letter to Works & Engineering Minster Ashfield DeVent yesterday demanding that they be consulted before any new contractor is taken on to replace the sacked Pro-Active Management Systems or before work restarts on the Berkeley Road site ? otherwise they will go to court.

UAH provided the performance bond for the school construction project ? a kind of insurance policy ? and has also lent Pro-Active money to help the contractor keep working through cash flow problems.

The letter, which is signed by BIU leader and Government backbencher Derrick Burgess, concludes: "UAH is obligated, therefore, to put you on notice that unless we obtain from you by the close of business Friday September 10 your written assurance that you will not

"(i) enter into any binding contract or arrangement with an alternative contractor for the completion of this project without prior reference to UAH and our express approval; nor

"(ii) recommence, whether by yourselves or through another entity or a combination of yourselves and another entity, construction on the site, we shall seek an injunction in the Supreme Court of Bermuda to restrain you from doing so."

The letter argues that, as the surety of the bond, "UAH has a common law right to insist on completing the construction works under its own aegis and supervision".

Government has announced that Somers Construction will play a consultation role in completing the school, but UAH argue their views should have been taken into account first.

"UAH has simply not been invited to participate," the letter continued. "Instead you have repeatedly stonewalled us and .insisted upon the exercise of a power which, frankly, you do not possess."

UAH also attacks the Ministry for inadequate payments to Pro-Active (PAMS). "PAMS has also, as the direct result result of your practice of arbitrarily shortchanging them on their various monthly applications for progress payments, turned to UAH for financing ... As a result, UAH is now a substantial creditor of PAMS."

The letter also points out that the BIU represents all those who worked on the site for Pro-Active. It adds: "The BIU has made every reasonable effort, short of litigation, to secure from you a commitment to honour these workers' rights in respect of severance and/or redundancy pay. In this regard you have rebuffed and refused every such request of the BIU."

Minister DeVent was unavailable for comment yesterday.