The Union Government, late on Saturday evening, gave in to some major demands of the striking port workers after which the five-day-old strike in the 11 main ports of the country was called off. The workers will join work from Monday after a written assurance from the government has come in which has said that their demands on the pay structure, among other things, will be looked into sympathetically.The Centre has promised that by February 28, a solution to the major problems which had brought about the strike will be reached through bilateral meetings between the labour unions and the government representatives.

However, in Uttar Pradesh, the attacks on power workers are continuing which has made the resolve of the agitating staff more determined. After talks between the workers' representatives and ministers of the state government failed, police assaults and indiscriminate attacks on power staffers began throughout the state.Two top leaders of the movement were arrested late on Saturday night under the National Security Act. With the arrests mounting, the total number of agitating workers behind bars has now crossed 6,000, with 1,000 having been arrested during Saturday. More than 120 engineers have been sacked. There are reports of police violence inside the homes of agitating workers throughout the state.

But the resolve of the workers remain firm and the strike which began on January 15 seems to be gaining momentum. Fighting against the proposed privatisation of the power sector, the workers have even spurned the state power minister Naresh Agarwal's desperate olive branch in which he said that if the strike is withdrawn by Monday, the the state government would be willing to listen to the deamnds of the strikers and even concede some of them. He has even promised the carrot of out-of-turn promotions for strikers who join work before the January 24 cut-off date, a feeler which has been summarily rejected by the workers. The game has been seen through.

The West Bengal labour unions, in an act of solidarity with their counterparts in Uttar pradesh, have decided to join the strike on Monday but have also kept in mind the appeal on behalf of the West Bengal State Electricity Board to ensure that power supply in the state is not affected. The unions have decided that a minimum number of staff would be present at all the stations to take care of emergency situations.

While the resolve of the power strikers has brought cheer to the labour movement in the country, the victory of the port strikers has no doubt shown that with a sustained agitation, there can only be victory in the face of adversity.