In my opinion, in the case of a labour dispute, of course the company will continue to provide minimum service. I know that the legislation sometimes refers to essential services. However, beyond this concept, any company involved in a labour dispute will ensure that it continues its activities to some extent, in order to provide services.
However, when replacement workers are used, the company goes beyond this. They try to say that the company is continuing to operate as though there were no labour dispute. In my opinion, that disrupts the balance of power. That is why the dispute last an extremely long time.