To sample public opinion on the Bermuda Industrial Union’s tough stance on behalf of workers, The Royal Gazette hit the streets of Hamilton yesterday.The BIU could be headed for a showdown with the Department of Public Transport over its insistence that a bus driver, suspended for refusing a drug test following a bus accident, be given back her job.The union has also stuck by its overtime ban for roughly 40 dockworkers potentially delaying the unloading of some containers.Brian Perry, 43, of St George’s said: “It’s like the union holds the Island hostage. Right now everybody’s talking about the bus driver issue, as in whether or not there’ll be a strike. Everybody’s asking one another if they’re coming to work tomorrow because the union won’t back down. Tourists are concerned about it. It’s just like the last time the union forced Government to take back a bus driver who got fired. That can’t be the only way to get things done.”A woman waiting in the bus terminal who identified herself simply as a senior Bermudian said: “I’m not a union supporter, but people need jobs. This bus driver needs her job back. People need to work. So they do what they have to do what it takes.”A 35-year-old Jamaican chef in Bermuda on a work permit told us: “I think it’s some workers who abuse the union system. The union does well where negotiations are concerned, but a lot of public service workers do a sloppy job. In the case of the dockworkers, I think they should continue working like before while negotiations continue with their managers. Otherwise it affects other services and it’s not good for the country. Workers should be paid for the time they put in.”Tia, 28, from St George’s, said the union was sticking up for workers well.“But on the bus driver issue, I think the union is being a bit harsh on that,” she added. “Government workers are subject to drug tests. The driver should be suspended from work.”Gary, a Bermudian who works in the financial industry, also disagreed with the union’s defence of the suspended bus driver.“She should be tested. I’m not really sure about what’s going on with the dockworkers; maybe nobody is. But the driver clearly had an accident and there are clear rules. The driver should be drug tested, not handed back her job.”A 32-year-old Warwick man, who works as an accountant, said: “At least the union is trying to look out for the workers. Whether or not they’re protecting someone who is in the wrong, that’s not so easy to say. I think sometimes the union needs to step back and think of the country, and not use the threat of strikes, like what’s come up about the bus driver.”Raymond Smith, 43, of North Shore, felt dockworkers were entitled to their overtime.“All the fighting that black people have gone through over the years trying to get benefits and rights, and the bosses want these workers to do straight time?” Mr Smith said. “There’s something not right there.”Mr Smith said he did not feel the bus driver should be entitled to their job back, but he said drug testing procedure had not been correctly followed by Government and the union was using an option available to it.“When we make laws and set up a process, you have to go by it.” He added: “I don’t think a strike is the way the union should go, though. They have got to be able to come to a better agreement. It’s got to be done through talks.”Rebecca Foggo, a sales assistant from St George’s, felt that dockworkers should not be forced by management to give up work hours.“The bus situation is different,” she said. “I have a car now because you can’t rely on the bus like you used to. It seems like every time one person has problem, the union wants to disrupt it for everybody.”Comments on our two web articles tended to run more sharply when it came to the topic of the bus driver.One reader suggested simply privatising Bermuda’s public transport services.Another commentator wrote: “I hope the bus drivers go on strike. We are sick and tired of these unnecessary disputes, and at some point they must stop. Seemingly the union is hell-bent on showing us that they control the country. Government on the other hand seem to be terrified of the union, for obvious reasons. The only way to break this damaging cycle is for (Premier Paula) Cox and (BIU head Chris) Furbert to have a one on one discussion and see who blinks first.”On the dockworkers, one reader said: “There should be a law against holding a country to ransom ... For too long the unions have wrung every concession out of employers and businesses to the detriment of all including their own unionised workers.”Another reader commented: “If you want to pay (dockworkers) for the work that they do, then offer the workers payment per container offloaded, or put on the back of a truck. Hours at work should not come into the equation. That way, when it is busy, the guys that work harder get more.”