Government-sponsored industrial relations conference, taking aim at absent employers and telling visiting Michigan State University Professor Dr. Dan Kruger to get his facts straight before making rash comments.

In a press release BIU President Derrick Burgess defended the union's decision to stay away from the three-day conference which ended yesterday and drew about 60 participants to the Hamilton Princess Hotel.

The BIU's decision to stay away "was not a spontaneous act of rebellion, nor a bad case of public relations,'' wrote Mr. Burgess.

And he suggested, with a nod in Mr. Kruger's direction, that "it would be wise for guests to this country to get all the facts before making rash comments on this country's state of affairs''.

Mr. Kruger had earlier this week lamented the BIU's absence, telling them it was no way to score public relations points.

Mr. Burgess responded by saying the union's action was "a deliberate effort to vent its annoyance and lack of confidence in a government which does not abide by international conventions it purports to uphold''.

The union on Sunday told The Royal Gazette it was not boycotting the fifth-annual conference, it was merely not going.

"We've simply got nothing to say to people who can't live up to their own rules,'' Mr. Burgess said at the time.

The dispute centres around the failure of small hotel operators to sign an agreement with the union brokered over a year ago.

The union is especially upset that Government, which owns and administers the Stonington Beach Hotel through a Bermuda College Board of Trustees, has yet to sign.

Mr. Burgess charges his union has been trying for the past three years to persuade Government to formalise the deal.

"Ironically, hotels with no relationship with this country, other than a venue to make a profit (the large hotels) have signed that agreement,'' said Mr. Burgess.