The number of major work stoppages last year soared to a 23-year high and is showing no signs of slowing down this year, challenging legal departments to keep worker anger from boiling over into a strike or a unionization effort.

Whether driven by inflation that's erased wage gains or pushback over return-to-office policies, workers are feeling disenchanted, escalating the need for company leadership to anticipate how nearly any company action could be perceived as salt in the wound by rank-and-file workers.