The potential strike by employees at seven Crown corporations who are represented by Unifor has many asking about how there will be impacts on the average person.

Unifor, which represents roughly 4,400 employees at various Crown corporations, announced they would start work-to-rule action Monday, and if a new deal isn’t reached by the end of the day on Thursday, they would go on strike. A labour stoppage would affect SaskTel, SaskPower, SaskEnergy, SaskWater, the Water Security Agency, and two subsidiaries of SaskTel.

During the work-to-rule, there would be little impact on the average customer in the province, as, by its very nature, employees would still show up to work, but they will not be working overtime or doing anything above and beyond the normal job responsibilities.

When it comes to actual job action, there will be different impacts at the various Crowns.

For example, with SaskPower, Unifor represents employees who work in administration or their customer service. In the case of a work stoppage, there wouldn’t be any major disruptions to how things are handled.

Power outages, line work, and installations are handled by SaskPower employees who are part of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which is not part of the labour action.

Customers of SaskPower will notice longer wait times when calling customer support if there is a strike by the Unifor-represented employees. The Crown is recommending customers sign up for online My Account services to handle their requests in the case of a strike.

At SaskEnergy, there could be some disruptions to how customers normally handle their services with the Crown corporation.

The 24/7 emergency line will be operational, and SaskEnergy will still handle calls such as carbon monoxide leaks, pipelines being struck, line locates and such.

While emergency services are considered essential, and will not be impacted, what is deemed non-essential work will not be performed. This includes line or meter installations to new homes or businesses. As well, they will not assist with alterations of services such as moving a line to make way for a new deck.

In the case of a strike, SaskEnergy’s customer service line will not be in regular operation. Customers will be given a chance to leave a message or send an email to the Crown and then get a response. Because this could take a bit for customers to hear back, SaskEnergy is recommending customers sign up for their My Account feature online.

SaskTel isn't anticipating any impacts for their customers during the work-to-rule phase of the labour action. However, if there is a full labour disruption, SaskTel will put their business continuity plan in place to limit the impact on customer service. They will issue an advisory at that time to detail what potential impacts could be.

Talks are still underway between the union and the Crown corporations. A key sticking point is a two-year wage freeze proposed by the provincial government.