This article explores and theorises the relationship between sector level conflict and local level cooperation over working time within a pluralist ER model. Drawing on longitudinal data on working time cooperation in the primary and lower secondary school sector collected before and after sector level conflict in 2013, the article argues that management and labour at local level enter into a process of cultural script adaptation when faced with radical change. The cultural script is rooted in the ritualized collective interaction of the public sector collective bargaining model in Denmark.