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Power strike:Both sides wanted quick truce despite tough public stand
The strike called by the UP Vidyut Karmchari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti was called off around eight hours before the schedule on Sunday afternoon following an “amicable meeting” between energy minister AK Sharma and UPPCL chairman M Devraj on the one side and the Sangharsh Samiti leaders on the other.
Despite tough public posturing, both the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) management and the agitating employees were desperate to see the earliest end to the 72-hour statewide strike for different reasons.
The strike called by the UP Vidyut Karmchari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti was called off around eight hours before the schedule on Sunday afternoon following an “amicable meeting” between energy minister AK Sharma and UPPCL chairman M Devraj on the one side and the Sangharsh Samiti leaders on the other.
The employees went on the strike on March 16 night ignoring repeated appeals by minister. After that, the UPPCL management decided to deal with the strikers sternly and were making alternative arrangements to keep the power supply in the state normal.
Armed with a High Court order on Friday, the management even began a crackdown, terminating services of hundreds of contractual workers and lodging FIRs against employees and their leaders under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA).
Undeterred, the Sangharsh Samiti leaders threatened that the 72-hour “token” strike would convert into a statewide indefinite strike and a mass “jail bharo andolan” would also begin by employees the moment anyone of them booked under the ESMA were arrested.
The unexpected tough posturing by the Sangharsh Samiti leaders even after the high court initiated contempt proceedings is said to have led the invitation to employee leaders for fresh talks on Saturday evening. These talks that lasted for five longs hours failed to yield any result as they wanted an assurance on withdrawal of penal action launched against the employees. The energy minister, however, expressed his helplessness to do so without consulting chief minister Yogi Adityanath who had been keeping a close watch on the situation.
People aware of the developments said that though both the sides were apparently hardening their stand, the management and the employee leaders wanted to find a quick solution.
“Though the UPPCL did claim to have had made alternative arrangements to deal with the strike, it had reports of widespread power breakdowns that were not possible to be fixed, especially in rural areas, for lack of staff even as generation in power plants was also dipping fast for the same reason,” an official said.
“The management wanted an early end to the strike more so after the employee leaders threatened an indefinite strike,” he added.
The employee leaders, on the other hand, are also believed to have been left with little choice, but not to prolong the strike after the high court order failing which they may have landed themselves in the soup.
Taking a serious note of disruption of power supply on account of a strike by the power employees despite its previous order to ensure that power supply was not disrupted, the Allahabad High Court on Friday (March 17) initiated contempt proceedings against the Sangharsh Samiti leaders.
The court also issued bailable warrants against them through the chief judicial magistrate, Lucknow, asking them to be present before it (HC) on Monday.
“After the HC’s rap, the Sangharsh Samiti leaders had little scope left for continuing even the 72-hour strike, leave alone embarking on an indefinite strike and they wanted some face-saving offer to call off the strike before time prior to appearing before the high court on Monday,” said an insider.
The striking employees’ bargaining power was significantly reduced after the high court order coupled with the government’s tough stand.
“This is why Sangharsh Samiti that called the strike to primarily press the demand for a solid step by the government to implement the December 3 agreement or indirectly seek ouster of the current UPPCL chairman M Devraj finally boiled down to rollback of penal action proceedings launched against its leaders and employees during the strike since March 16,” he said.
