Give it time. I remember in the early 2000s, the right wing media (the Mail, Express, Telegraph) managed to write a load of nasty articles about the Fire Brigade striking over terms.
The Fire Brigade. You know, the guys and girls who risk their lives to run into burning buildings to save our arses, for something like £30k a year.
When the RW media have come out against the Fire Brigade, then Junior Doctors, then teachers, now transport staff, you get to understand that they hate working folk, and have nothing but disdain for the ordinary people of this country.
Without wanting to discredit the fire bobbies, the reforms in the early 2000s were less about pay and more about their working practices - e.g. shift patterns.
They do a really great job, at great risk, but in the past their night shift routine was laughable. For context, typically it's now a two days, two night, four off routine.
Some brigades did four days, four off, four nights, four off etc. For the nights, they had beds in many stations and could pretty much sleep most shifts.
This allowed many of them to infamously gain another trade (plumber, spark etc.), which they would do when they were finishing nights after sleeping.
The reforms came about because they wanted to remove the beds, install relaxing chairs and build in training routines for the start of each night shift.
This would mean they'd do their usual prep for each shift and then a couple of hours of in-station training before resting. This meant sleep was an exception.
My cousin, who was a watch commander, had a side job as an electrician and was earning a pretty penny from both jobs. The changes put an end to that.
That's not to discredit their strikers and whatnot as it made what was/is a dangerous job more favourable, but sometimes it's not as simple as asking for more pay.
