Bermuda Industrial Union members must stay the course of trade unionism if there is to be progress on the Island.

And more senior members must also act as mentors and guides to younger people if lives are to be made better in the next century.

That was the message given by US Congressman Elijah Cummings of Baltimore, Maryland at the 17th annual Labour Day Banquet at the Southampton Princess Hotel.

Rep. Cummings, a Democrat, thanked BIU members for not joining naysayers in condemning workers rights.

"I'm so glad there were some misfits who made the decision they were going to make a difference,'' he added.

He said his parents quit sharecropping in 1944 and went to Baltimore for a better life and quickly joined trade unions to protect their rights.

And Congressman Cummings -- a lawyer elected to the Maryland General Assembly in 1982 and congress in 1996 -- brought the house down when he briefly touched on the Monica-gate scandal plaguing the leader of his Democratic party.

"I know the Press is here...so take this down,'' he said to loud applause. "While so many people are concerned with this blue dress, in my district only 15 percent of children are able to read at the end of the third grade.'' He added that while the scandal goes on, deaths from AIDS increase, the quality of health care declines continually and the US government `is trying to pull the rug from under unions all over the world''.

"Fully 35 percent of the votes in the US Congress have something to do with tearing down unions,'' he added.

He said the gap between the "haves and the have-nots'' is becoming greater worldwide and should concern everyone especially union members.

He added: "There is a reason why united we stand, divided we fall. And the last thing folk want to see is you-all united.

"Who ever created this union proceeded in spite of their own fear,'' he said.

A graduate of Howard University, Congressman Cummings serves on the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, and the national security, international affairs and the criminal justice sub-committees.

He was once the speaker pro-tem of the Maryland house of delegates, the second highest in the general assembly.

Congressman Cummings warmly thanked former president of the BIU, Ottiwell Simmons, research officer Barbara Ball, and visiting union members from the US.

And he heaped praise on PLP leader Jennifer Smith and said union supporters must appreciate strong leadership.

"That's why I talk about Jennifer Smith,'' he said. "When I was told that the leader of the party was a woman, and tough, and bad, I appreciated her and I know how special and unique that would be in America.'' Rep. Elijah Cummings UNIONS UNS