It is not likely that the strike of Manitoba Hydro workers will have a significant impact on customer service, but it is possible.

Demanding wage adjustments at least equal to the cost of living, the local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers began a rotating strike Tuesday afternoon. The union members began the strike by walking off the job site just hours after negotiations hit a stalemate.

“A rotating strike basically means that not all of our operations and services are affected at the same time, it moves from one place to another,” defines Bruce Owen, a spokesperson for the Crown Corporation.

Owen says Manitoba Hydro has temporarily reassigned all non-essential roles to ensure they have employees on standby as a contingency plan. He lists street light repairs, indoor meter readings, meter exchanges, and structure moves as projects that have been put on hold until a resolution can be found.

Barring a significant weather event or emergency, he says Manitoba Hydro should have the resources in place to deal with power-related issues.

“In the event of a major outage like those caused by the weather, we would prioritize calls first based on public safety and then we would follow by restoring the larger outages and working down from there.”

That being said, there may be moments in the coming days where Hydro employees in Steinbach may temporarily refuse work. Owen, who is not part of negotiations, says he is unsure how long the strike will last.

IBEW, meanwhile, has turned down Manitoba Hydro’s initial offer of a three-year contract which included a 0.75 per cent wage increase in the third year retroactive to January 1 of this year.