failed to show up for contract talks yesterday, leaving union president Mr.

Ottiwell Simmons to go it alone.

The team was absent from the Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board hearing despite a ruling on Wednesday that ordered hoteliers to pay seven of the 19 union members to attend.

Before the ruling no members of the BIU's negotiating team, who all work in the Island's hotels, were being paid for the time they spent at the hearings.

Their absence prompted Mr. Simmons to suggest at the start of yesterday's session that they could be "protesting'' the fact that hoteliers were not ordered to pay all 19 team members.

However, BIU Hotels Division president Mr. Herbie Bascome said that was not the case.

Mr. Bascome said he and other members of the team had not yet been told by their managers they could attend the hearings without fear of losing pay.

"We have not been informed we are free to go to the hearings; that's why we did not show up,'' Mr. Bascome said, adding he probably won't be at the hearings today either.

Mr. Simmons pointed out repeatedly during yesterday's session that he was at a "tremendous disadvantage'' without all 19 members of his negotiating team at his side.

But Bermuda Hotel Association chief executive officer Mr. John Harvey said he suspected Mr. Simmons had simply not selected the seven team members yet. He said hoteliers could not afford to pay all 19 to attend and he pointed out the BIU had had two years to prepare for the hearings. A negotiating team of 19 was, he said, "not necessary.'' But Mr. Simmons charged it was "a gross act of injustice'' that his entire team was not being paid to attend.

"I feel pretty much alone up here representing 3,500 people,'' he said. "The employers have managed to manipulate the Board into dispensing the television cameras, and now our negotiating team. It's a gross act of injustice.'' Mr. Simmons said in past hotel talks members of his team had never been denied pay to take part in labour negotiations.

"That number was always in the teens,'' he added.

The HEB's second witness, chartered accountant Mr. David Lines, took the stand yesterday and presented his controversial "Report on the Financial Position of Bermuda's Hotel Industry.'' He said the report, based on financial information from ten of Bermuda's hotels in the ten years to 1989, showed a major factor behind the "poor financial performance of Bermuda's large hotels'' was declining occupancy levels.

The average occupancy rates for the 22 BHA members dropped from 75 percent in the late 1960s to 65 percent in the 1980s, Mr. Lines said.

He said the decline was accounted for partly by changing vacation patterns in the key US market.

"Americans have shifted to shorter but more frequent vacations, resulting in a marked decline in the average length of stay,'' he said.

Mr. Lines said although local hotels still enjoyed a good summer season, there was a declining trend in the off-peak season.

"The hotels' financial position can only be improved by raising revenue and reducing costs,'' he said, adding the cost of labour to hotels in Bermuda was "unusually high.'' He warned that if tourism continued to decline hotels would find they were unable to survive and would be forced to go out of business.

Mr. Simmons is expected to begin cross examining Mr. Lines today.

The union's contract demands include: a wage hike, significant increases in compensation due to layoff, double time pay instead of the current time and a half for holidays, insurance to include doctor's office and home visits, compassionate leave increased from four to five working days for overseas funerals, and maternity leave expanded from nine to ten weeks.