Nearly 5,000 employees represented by Unifor at seven Crown corporations are no longer working.

Talks between Unifor and the province have reached an impasse, and Unifor advised it's members that they will be going on strike.

The seven Crowns affected by the strike are SaskEnergy, SaskPower, SaskTel, SecurTek, Direct West, SaskWater, and the Water Security Agency.

Some of the Crown bargaining committee agreements have been expired for two years or longer, in an attempt to find a solution to the government’s proposed wage freeze mandate. 

Unifor members have been working to rule over the past few days, with the prospect of this strike looming.

The union is looking for pay raises close to what MLA’s received (2.3 percent), while one of the offers from the provincial government would have seen no raise for the first two years, with a one percent rise in the third year.

The among of an impact it will have on residents varies from Crown to Crown.

SaskEnergy 

SaskEnergy had 800 Unifor members, of which roughly 200 will remain on the job as they are deemed essential services. 

The emergency call centre for SaskEnergy will remain open. This will mean staff will be able to respond to emergency situations as needed, such as gas line hits, underground leaks, gas odour calls, responding to calls for assistance from firefighters, and handling line locate requests.

Crews will not install new lines, and will not handle calls for construction assistance, such as moving a line to allow for the construction of a deck.

Those who need to call customer service will be able to leave a voicemail or send an email. Managers will handle the responses to those inquiries, but customers should expect delays.

SaskEnergy recommends customers sign up for their online My Account service in the interim.

SaskPower

The Crown electricity company will see the largest impact on their call centre and administrative roles. The exception is the outage centre, which is deemed an essential service. Unifor employees who work there will remain on the job.

When it comes to work such as downed power lines, installation of lines and so forth, those employees will not be affected as they are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and are not going to be taking job action.

SaskTel

SaskTel will see a number of impacts as a result of the strike. 

For personal services, all SaskTel stores will be closed during the labour stoppage. 

Customers will be able to make changes to existing services through the MySASKTEL online portal and will be able to activate new wireless services at a SaskTel authorized dealer. 

New home services and transfers due to a move will not be able to be completed during the strike.

For business customers, there will be the ability to start a new wireless service at a SaskTel authorized dealer and make changes to their accounts via the online portal.

Direct West and SecurTek

SecurTek and Direct West will work to provide services to their customers by having members of their management teamwork to maintain services. This may result in delays in response times. 

SecurTek monitoring services will be maintained by the management team and out of scope staff.

SaskWater and Water Security Agency

For SaskWater and the Water Security Agency, there won’t be any services not offered, but delays are possible.

Unionized staff will remain on for essential services such as water testing and operation of the provincial dam system. There will be other delays for things such as permits, approvals and licenses.