Returning to work after a lockout and a strike isn’t easy, but a private concert starring Bruce Cockburn does help ease the pain.

That’s what members and supporters of the Faculty Association of the University of St. Thomas (FAUST) got on April 18, marking the end of difficult and lengthy contract negotiations between the union and the university administration over the preceding months.

“We approached Bruce about an event, and much to our delight he quickly said yes,” said Dawn Morgan, a member of the faculty union’s executive.

Cockburn was awarded an honorary doctorate from St. Thomas University in 1999 for his work towards advancing social justice in Latin America and Canada.

Morgan said Cockburn drove from New York to Fredericton for the concert, which was held at a downtown club. The event was closed to the public.

The union usually hosts an end of term celebration, but Morgan said “something special” was in order this year. Cockburn donated his time and talent to the evening, playing for 70 minutes for the crowd.

“He just slipped into town for the event and it was fabulous. At one point, we were all singing along to Wondering Where the Lions Are,” Morgan said, referring to Cockburn’s 1979 Top 40 hit from the Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws album.

FAUST members were locked out on Dec. 27 and the focus of the dispute changed abruptly when the faculty went out on strike two weeks later. The strike ended in February with a tentative agreement to settle outstanding issues through binding arbitration.

Morgan said all faculty association members, as well as colleagues from other unions, were invited to the concert, and that organizers had hoped FAUST members who didn’t support the strike would show up for the concert.

“The healing process will continue, and we did invite those members, hoping they would come. We were disappointed they didn’t,” Morgan said.

But local CUPE members who supported the faculty union during the strike, and who resisted crossing picket lines, did show up. Morgan noted that some of the younger concert-goers who hadn’t heard Cockburn’s music before, were “just blown away.”