Our team conducted extensive due diligence and facilitated eight focus groups with various levels of management to learn about the culture, employee sentiment, union/management dynamics and the underlying causes of the prolonged strike. Armed with the research findings, we developed immediate and long-term recommendations on ways to improve internal communications, employee morale and overall relations between the union and management. We also developed a training program to educate front-line supervisors about communications best practices and empower them to effectively lead and manage the returning union employees. This required a delicate balance between encouraging them to be stern managers, yet being empathetic to the financial and emotional challenges many of the unionized workers faced while on strike.