I, for instance, may be allowed to retain workers after end of strike (7)
I believe the answer is:
element
'i for instance' is the definition.
(I is the chemical symbol for iodine)
'be allowed to retain workers after end of strike' is the wordplay.
'be allowed' becomes 'let' (I've seen this before).
'to retain' indicates putting letters inside.
'workers' becomes 'men' (man is a kind of worker).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'end of' says to take the final letters.
The last letter of 'strike' is 'e'.
'let' enclosing 'men' is 'lement'.
'lement' put after 'e' is 'ELEMENT'.
'may' is the link.
(Other definitions for element that I've seen before include "Chemical building block" , "lead, for example" , "Constituent part (7)" , "He, say" , "fire, perhaps, once" .)