leadership of the union is preparing to abort the findings of the Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board. The Union, which refused the Hobgood hotels award just about a year ago, now seems to be laying the ground to refuse to abide by any findings of the present tribunal. Why this is happening we are not sure but it is important for the public to understand that it is happening.

We think that the Hotel Employers of Bermuda are not especially pushed and are not fussing about a settlement because, by and large, their members implemented the Hobgood award in May 1991 and most individual workers accepted the fruits of that award, therefore the HEB members must feel that any findings of the present Disputes Board will only hit them in the purse and therefore they are not going to rush to settlement. Hoteliers are also aware that, internally, things are quiet right now on the hotel labour front and they may be reluctant to have the Disputes Board present a report which might stir things up. We do not see much chance of that because it is hard to believe that the present hearings will end until well into autumn.

There seems to be a general refusal by parties before this Disputes Board to face the realities of Bermuda's tourism problems today. If the parties to the hearing could accept the fact that with today's competition and Bermuda's prices the prospects of attracting growing numbers of visitors from the United States are not good, then we might be able to come to conclusions helpful to the future. But we continue to approach tourism as if this was the mid-1950s and Bermuda had prospects of an ever-expanding market. The recession has made Americans conscious of price and value for money and Bermuda must accept that fact.

We noticed this week that PLP MP Mr. David Allen referred to Tourism Minister the Hon. C.V. (Jim) Woolridge as "Rip Van Woolridge'' but that criticism seems to apply more aptly to BIU President Mr. Ottiwell Simmons MP who refuses to accept that there are problems in the tourism industry or that hotels have a cash crisis.

Mr. Simmons does not accept that tourism is not a cash cow which will forever support increased BIU demands. We have reached the point that visitors are refusing to buy the product Bermuda offers, including the services of its workers, because they are too expensive. This is the time to sit down rationally and work out how Bermuda can continue to sell tourism while providing the best advantage for the people of Bermuda. Tourism can supply Bermuda with a good living but it will no longer supply fanciful notions.

Empty hotels benefit no-one. Closed hotels benefit no-one. We have closed hotels. We have hotels which are a good deal more empty than does Bermuda any good. Maybe that's the way the BIU hierarchy likes it but it is not the way the majority of Bermudians like it.

We can only think that by opening old sores, reviving issues already settled, dwelling in the past and prolonging hearings, the BIU is going to use its complaints as an excuse to reject the results of the current Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board hearings. The BIU clearly did not want such a board in the first place and it may be hoping to wreck this disputes process.

Of course, the BIU could be planning not to reach a hotel contract settlement hoping that the economy will improve so that it can then threaten to strike and thus blackmail hotels into large settlements for fear of a ruined good season on top of several bad seasons. Of course, the BIU could just want Bermuda out of the tourism industry.

These hearings are long and tedious and the public has a slight tendency to feel, "Oh, that again,'' but people should be careful to pay attention because something very important to Bermuda seems to be taking place.