Crowns initiate contingency plans for Unifor strike

The heads of Crown corporations hit by strikes Friday morning are confident in their contingency plans to maintain a level of essential services.

That said, they admitted that customers can expect issues in some areas.

“Public safety will be a priority,” Blair Swystun, the president of the Crown Investments Corporation, said during a media conference at the Travelodge Hotel on Albert Street.

“Elective services will be managed as resources allow, but customers will likely experience service delivery disruptions. Although each Crown has essential services in place as well as management covering operations, it is reasonable to expect that there will be an impact to service delivery.”

The heads of SaskTel, SaskEnergy, SaskPower, SaskWater and the Water Security Agency took part in the media conference, which was held just hours after employees represented by Unifor hit the picket lines.

All of the officials said they were comfortable with the process that helped set their contingency plans and with the staff that will fill in for the unionized employees who went on strike.

Doug Burnett, the president and CEO of SaskTel, said the corporation’s management contingent will provide essential services such as 911, fire and police during the work stoppage, and crews will be available to respond to emergencies. However, all SaskTel stores will be closed during the strike.

“I expect that during this time we will see some disruption and some delays,” Burnett said. “I think that’s only inevitable given that we will be operating with one-fifth of the usual employee complement but our plan is really to do the very best that we can to try and minimize the disruption for our customers.”

Burnett said SaskTel’s services are being provided by managers, or roughly 20 per cent of the company’s 3,700 employees. None of the corporation’s unionized staff reported for work Friday.

While most of the presidents said the strike won’t affect the revenue of their respective corporation, Burnett admitted SaskTel’s losses will depend on the length of the strike.

“I can’t give you definitive numbers, but it is not insignificant,” he said. “The longer this strike goes on, the more significant the impact.”

SaskPower president Mike Marsh said unionized employees at the Crown’s call centre are off the job, so managers are filling in. SaskPower has reduced its phone and online chat hours to 10 a.m., to 3 p.m., but emergency calls will still be answered at the outage centre (306-310-2220).

“Communicating to customers in emergency situations to ensure their safety is of paramount importance for us,” Marsh said, “and we will make sure that continues to happen.”

Power line technicians and operators at power stations will continue to work, since they’re represented by a different union.

SaskEnergy’s emergency line (1-888-700-0427) will continue to operate, but non-emergency work won’t be done during the strike. Ken From, the corporation’s president, said 25 per cent of the Crown’s 1,050 employees will be at work every day.

“Obviously our priority is to continue operating our natural gas system 24/7,” From said. “We serve over 400,000 customers. It’s getting colder out and everyone knows that, with the cold weather, we need natural gas.”

Both Water Security Agency president Susan Ross and Doug Matthies, the head of SaskWater, said some services offered by their Crowns could be delayed.

Swystun said the bargaining teams for all seven Crowns have made “fair and reasonable offers” to the Unifor bargaining teams. When asked about the union’s claims that its monetary demands aren’t out of line considering raises given to management, Swystun declined to discuss the matter.

Despite union claims that the corporations have been inflexible in their negotiations, Swystun said management has been bargaining in good faith.

“No one wins in a strike,” he said. “We want to see agreements reached as soon as possible so we can ensure that everyone gets back to regular operations and their regular routines.”

The Crown corporations’ plans appear below.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Lisa Schick