The company and the union are engaged in a 'war of nerves', with each side threatening the other.
Something she said to him must have 'hit/struck/touched a nerve'. I've never seen him so angry.
“After making the mess, he didn't even offer to help clean it up.” “What (a) 'nerve'!”
(..) your time. They can't track us over rock. Tell them that. They're beginning to get on my nerves. Who are those guys? You remember the time you, me, and Etta went to Denver for a vacation? (..)1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid