The strike is over – now what?

Recently, many Canadians and business felt the impact of a lengthy strike by Canada Post workers. The month-long dispute came about after demands for higher wages, enhanced benefits and leaves, and greater job security were not met.

Eventually, the government declared an impasse in the talks, and the Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered the strikers to return to work.

But while the conclusion of a strike may seem like the resolution of a conflict, in many ways, it marks the start of a complex and sensitive recovery process.

Employers face the challenge of re-establishing trust, addressing lingering tensions, and ensuring the organization can return to normal operations without lasting divisions.

So, how can organizations navigate this phase effectively? We spoke to three Canadian experts who underscored the importance of planning, communication, and thoughtful leadership in fostering a productive return to work.

Post-strike dynamics often overlooked

According to Sean O’Brady, the transition back to work after a strike receives far less attention than the conflict itself.

“It’s very safe to say that… there is very little interest in what happens in terms of tensions and culture within the organization after a strike,” says the assistant professor of human resources and management at McMaster University.

“The focus is on the issues relating to the strike, the nature of the strike, the strategies of the strike, the duration of the strike, the organizing of workers to begin with, [and] employer resistance.”

But after the strike takes place, and people must return to the workplace, further challenges arise.

“The ability for employers to maintain productive workers, for them to maintain a positive culture of collaboration within the organization — as well for workers to maintain solidarity, should they need to draw on it again at another point — this is not something that is at the forefront of research inquiry,” he says.

Preparing early for transition after strike

Planning for the return to work should begin before a strike even starts, says Siobhan O’Brien, partner at Hicks Morley in Ottawa.

“Just like employers would be preparing their strike contingency plans, they should start giving thought early days to their return-to-work plan,” she says.

“How significant that needs to be will change as time goes through and if a strike materializes, but I think making that part of your broader plan is wise at the outset.”

O’Brady echoes this need for early preparation, noting that many organizations fail to implement a formal transition process.

“It is not uncommon for organizations to not have a transition plan after a strike. There are many instances where people just go back to work, and that is kind of a plan,” he says.

“There are a lot of organizations [where] it's very normal for there to be no additional effort to change things, or if they do, it's more cosmetic, a little bit of communication, saying, ‘Everything's good,’ but nothing more substantive than that.”

Lingering tensions make recovery tougher

The way an employer conducts itself during the strike has a profound impact on the post-strike environment. O’Brady points out that employers face choices about whether to escalate tensions — between the employer and the union, or between the workers themselves — or take a more collaborative approach.

 “Sometimes, the idea is they want to provoke these tensions, and they … [may] want to break the union. You can potentially do that by creating divisions between employees, but it does mean that you’re taking the risk that when people go back to work, these divisions will ensue, and they often do,” he says.

“This can create longer tensions within your workforce that make it tougher to go back to normal and have positive cultures.”

The psychological toll of a strike can have lasting effects on employees’ attachment to their workplace.

“If, for example, workers feel like it was just all concessions and they were out for a while, that’s hard to take. That’s hard to go back to that workplace. You don’t feel like you’re valued, and that changes people’s psychological attachment to a workplace,” says Sean Tucker, professor at the University of Regina.

He adds that actions during the strike, such as the use of replacement workers, can have long-term consequences — which is why some provinces have brought in bans.

“Seeing someone cross the picket line and taking your job is the gut punch, and those replacement workers are managed by your supervisor and manager,” he says.

“That's hard to take, and those relationships may or may not recover over the long term.”

Discipline after strikes

After the strike ends, employers should avoid punitive actions and focus on re-establishing normalcy.

 O’Brady explains, “The law says you cannot punish people for going on strike. You can’t fire them. You can’t discipline them. Participating in industrial action is protected by the law, and so employers do have to respect the law in that way.”

And anything an employee does during a strike should probably go unnoticed, he says.

“When an employee goes back, make them feel comfortable, talk to them about things and don’t even draw attention to their behaviour during the strike,” says O’Brady.

“Let them kind of feel like, ‘OK, we recognize that a strike is a specific moment where the relationship gets tense, but we can go completely back to normal afterwards.’”

A collective agreement may, for lack of a better term, offer an amnesty to certain activity on the picket line, says Tucker, or be taken care of through the grievance process.

“If it relates to police charges, there would be a separate process for that.”

It's going to be a management decision as to how what has happened during the strike is addressed, or whether the employer decides to “turn the page,” says O’Brien.

Addressing tensions and building trust

After a strike, the first steps would be having a discussion internally to ensure there is a deliberate recovery and repair process, that includes lessons learned and then reviewing where management can step in, says O’Brien.

“The wellness check, the early debrief, the welcome back, the commitment to the organization’s well-being and its commitment to anti-harassment, anti-violence — those kinds of very early days touchpoints should be had right off the bat,” she says.

O’Brien emphasizes the importance of ensuring consistent communication throughout the process.

“The messaging of the organization should be shared with management, so that it is one tone, and it is a tone about commitment to the principles and values of the organization and the well-being of employees, and to that process of recovery and repair,” she says.

The top priorities after a strike will depend largely on the length of the dispute, the type of employer involved and the issues that led to the dispute, says Tucker, such as a pension, wages, or technology in the workplace.

But if there was limited communication during the strike, that can make a difference to the recovery.

“If the dispute went on for several months and you didn't hear once from your supervisor, and they drove by the picket line and didn't look at you, [that can be] really hard… each manager and worker is going to navigate that as best they can going forward.”

Tucker suggests that employers consider how leadership changes might boost recovery efforts, especially after longer conflicts.

“Sometimes in these bitter disputes, in order to move forward, you do need to see a change in leadership on either the company side or the union side, or both… that can help the process of restoring some relationships,” he says.

Working with the union in recovery mode

O’Brady advises employers to be mindful of the narrative around the strike’s resolution, and to work with the unions in transitioning back to work.

“The employer might say, ‘Okay, we'll let you get credit for some of the gains you have, if you can also help facilitate the transition back to work, and maybe not trash us too much.’

“And then they'll go in, and everybody will make peace, and they'll say, ‘We fought a lot, but now we have a compromise, and we're back to work.’”

It’s common for employers, after a strike, to let the union brag a bit about its role, while the employer stays humble — which also helps improve the relationship with the union, says O’Brady.

“The goal of the union is to please the members, and the employer doesn't really lose by it saying, ‘We gave you more,’ even though it's a compromise.”

Post-mortem audits after strike

Conducting a post-mortem or audit after a strike can also provide valuable insights for preventing future conflicts, says O’Brien.

“It may be that the employer wants to go ahead and look at the full organizational structure and employee attitudes, and feelings of engagement, so they could assess all of it, if that is appropriate, given the context of the strike,” she says.

“On a more pointed scale, it would be looking at things like, what are your policies? What are your practices? What forms do we have in place for employees to voice concerns? How is communication happening in the workplace? Can we make improvements there?”

But in the end, employers should carefully consider the long-term costs of unresolved tensions, says Tucker.

 “You can’t buy back a relationship.”