Four months into his job as President of the Bermuda Industrial Union, Chris Furbert is clear about one thing: the members come first.

Having worked his way up the ranks after becoming involved in the union as a teenager, one of his first actions as leader was commissioning a survey to find out what the rank-and-file members want. He said he owes everything he has achieved to the 4000-strong BIU membership, and does not want to lose touch with its views.

Therefore, over the coming weeks, forms will be circulated and the feedback discussed at a summit which he said, aims to ?come up with a vision for the way forward for the BIU?.

This is the first time the membership ? which encompasses Works and Engineering, Marine and Ports Services, the bus service and the postal service among others ? has been surveyed in this way.

Mr. Furbert said: ?I may think I know what the members want, but I don?t want to take that for granted. Their input into the organisation is vital.?

He added: ?In order for a leader to be strong he has to have his membership behind him. You can?t go to war and look behind you and find no soldiers.?

Mr. Furbert first got involved in the union movement when in 1971, at the age of 18, he became the third generation of his family to go to work for Stevedoring Services at Hamilton docks. He joined the Port Workers Division and worked his way up to the position of President, holding this role from 1981 until 1995 and gaining a reputation as a radical along the way.

He joined the BIU full time in 1995 as an organiser. His election to the top job in March, taking over the helm from Derrick Burgess, was an emotional moment. ?When we were having seminars at the union back in the ?70s, the last question on the evaluation sheet asked ?what?s your ambition?? I said mine was to be the President of the BIU one day.

?To see that 35 years later is quite an accomplishment and I owe that to the membership. They?ve seen Chris grow over the years, and I owe them,? he said.

Born on Christmas Day, 1952 in Pembroke, Mr. Furbert went to Northlands school and what was then known as Churchill school.

He never went to college and says he owes his education to the BIU. ?I owe a great debt to this organisation. They?ve offered me the opportunity to travel and learn. I?m extremely appreciative of what they?ve done for me with my trade union education, here and internationally,? said Mr. Furbert, who is been proud to have attended five meetings of the International Labour Organisation in Switzerland, most recently last month.

The ILO is a tripartite structure with workers and employers participating as equal partners with governments in seeking the promotion of social justice, human and labour rights.

?It?s been a high point to be able to travel on behalf of the BIU ? the knowledge I was able to gain by travelling has allowed me to see that change has happened all around the world.

?People are afraid of change sometimes for good reasons. We need to do a good job of explaining change and why it needs to happen,? he said.

Asked about his reputation for being something of a firebrand, he said: ?If you?re dealing with employers you need to be a bit radical and to make decisions to get their attention. Back in the day the Port Workers (Division) was a rough area. I had some huge shoes to fill. I wanted to make sure the men were respected and that the employer followed the agreement.?

Asked ? particularly in the light of the recent bus strike which left commuters stranded across the Island ? if this is the shape of things to come under his leadership, he responded: ?Don?t take the Bermuda Industrial Union for granted. We need to be respected.

?There are some employers out there who may want to test us and see exactly what?s going on. I?m saying we?re going to work with the employers and Government to really try and make sure this country continues to be successful.

?It?s in nobody?s best interests to have work stoppages every other day but people need to understand that worker?s rights need to be protected. I understand they have businesses to run and no-one?s trying to stop them, but let?s sit down and talk about issues.?

Mr. Furbert blames the bus strike on the Public Transportation Board (PTB), claiming it didn?t engage in joint consultation with the union for up to eight months before the walk-out.

Comparing the situation to that of a domestic partnership, he asked: ?How do you say to your wife or your girlfriend ?I?m not speaking to you? for eight months? How do you come in that house every day and not speak? So how do you go to a workplace five days a week and don?t sit down with the Joint Consultative Committee and talk about issues? What?s going to happen to the relationship? It?s going to get strained. You can?t have that.?

Besides concerns he has over a lack of consultation, another bugbear are delays in dealing with issues once they have been referred to the Labour Department. ?They take forever and a day to be sorted out. That should not happen. The issue with the PTB (over staffing, which led to the strike) had been with the Labour Department since last September,? he said.

Mr. Furbert estimated that approximately 15-20 issues currently rest with the Labour Department, with one dating back to the year 2000.

He said he had highlighted his concern over this to both Premier Alex Scott and Minister of Labour Randy Horton.

?Right now stuff is building up and that creates frustration. The delay is compounding the problem. I will promise them as President of the BIU if we resolve things in a better time frame I believe we will have less conflict.?

Mr. Furbert said the union is continuing to work with Government through a joint task force to thrash out plans to cut the working week.

The BIU agreed in January to reduce hours from 37 to 35 for members. The plans were condemned by Bermuda Employers? Council president William DeSilva Jr., who warned that cutting hours would either hit services hard or land the taxpayer with a heavy overtime bill.

The then Shadow Finance Minister Grant Gibbons also criticised the plans, citing concerns that it could make Bermuda less economically competitive.

Dismissing this, Mr. Furbert said statistics showed that a 35 to 36 hour working week was not uncommon in Bermuda and he did not believe the move would have a damaging impact.

Citing figures from the Government on the working week in sectors ranging from the fishing industry to retail, education, and international business, he said that the average in 2004 was 35.9 hours.

?Reducing our hours to 35 will not have that much impact,? he said, adding that many BIU workers were already working these anyway.

Addressing another controversial issue ? the fact that the BIU?s accounts have not been filed with the Registrar General as required by law since 1999 ? he said the audit should be finished by the end of this month and the accounts filed by August.

He pledged that once this has been done, the accounts will be filed regularly in future.

The matter of the union representing Corporation workers is currently resting with lawyers. Workers voted by 39 to 37 last November in favour of the BIU representing them but the Corporation lodged complaints about the ballot with the Ministry of Labour.

In January, the Ministry told both parties that the vote was valid and accepted the BIU as the sole bargaining agent for the workers.

However, the Corporation is currently seeking a Supreme Court review of that decision. Mr. Furbert said the Corporation had obtained an injunction stopping the union representing workers in the meantime.

He added: ?It?s a sad day when employers go to lawyers to stop employees being represented.?

Asked if he plans to follow in the footsteps of previous Presidents Ottiwell Simmons and Derrick Burgess and run for political office, Mr. Furbert indicated he had not ruled this out.

He has unsuccessfully run twice for the PLP in the past. Of the next election, he said: ?I think it?s up to the party to decide to approach me as a candidate, then entirely up to my general council to decide if I can run.

?I?ve not really decided if I?m going to run for political office. I?ve thought about it, but not come to any decision yet.?

However, he dismissed gripes expressed by some that holding dual roles within the Union and the PLP represents a conflict of interest. ?I don?t support that message. The voice of labour needs to be heard in the House of Assembly.

?This whole thing about conflict of interest only came alive and well in 1998, that?s my opinion. I remember people in the UBP holding positions. I didn?t hear anything about conflict of interests when David Gibbons was finance minister and held a key position in Gibbons Group,? he said.

Outside of the union and political realm. Mr. Furbert is well-known as a football fanatic who is President of the Pembroke Hamilton Club.

This year has been the first in the last 43 that he?s not played a season of football, having never managed to fit in the gym sessions and running he wanted to do.

He?s also a golf, basketball and tennis fan and a keen poker player, winning $76,387 last October after making it to the last table of the US Poker Championships.

His big moment was shown in Bermuda on cable TV earlier this month, but he said he?s not had any decent wins lately.

Married to Tracey, his eyes light up with pride when he talks about his three sons, Jevone, Chris Jr. and Idrees, and two daughters, Kryshae and Isra. It?s clear he regrets the fact that the demands of his union post mean he doesn?t get to spend as much time with them as he would like.

?It?s been challenging. I come to work at 7.30 in the morning and try to get away at a reasonable hour but the earliest time I?ve been able to leave is 5 p.m., and sometimes it?s six or seven at night.

?Ten to 12 hour days is a lot, but I?m prepared to put my work in. It?s a huge commitment but the membership felt Chris was up to the challenge,? he said.