The Saskatchewan government is being "short-sighted and mean-spirited" by removing union representatives from Crown corporation boards, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union says.

Last month, the government dismissed the boards of provincially owned Crowns such as SaskTel, SaskPower and SaskEnergy.

At the time, Deputy Premier Ken Krawetz said that in some cases, current board members would be invited to continue, while in other instances, new board members would be appointed.

Since then, the government has replaced the boards, but has ended the tradition of automatically putting a union representative on them, CEP says.

That's "short-sighted and mean-spirited," CEP vice-president Wendy Sol said Wednesday in a news release. "Our members have always made a valuable contribution to the boards on which they served."

CEP national representative Rhoda Cossar said the change was made without any discussions with the unions.

"When Brad Wall talked about consultation, for some reason we thought that meant talking to us, too," she said. "It seems now this new government only talks to its friends in business."

CEP represents thousands of workers at SaskTel and other Crowns. For the past 12 years, it had representatives on the boards of SaskTel, SaskPower, SaskEnergy and SaskWater.

The changes come as the Saskatchewan government prepares to remake other labour laws.

One proposed law would allow some government workers to be designated as "essential services" personnel who wouldn't be allowed to go on strike.

Another proposed law would end automatic union certification in cases where more than half of employees sign union cards. Instead, a union drive could only trigger a vote, no matter how many people sign union cards.

The Saskatchewan government says its a matter of rebalancing labour laws to achieve fair rules.

Labour groups say the proposed changes, which will be debated in the spring session, strip them of their rights to go on strike and will make it harder to unionize non-union workplaces.