For those quick to compare this to the negated US strike from last year, Biden at least met railroaders halfway and they can still pull the rug out if they want. And in an ironic twist, America's conservatives were fully prepared for a total strike meltdown just to make Biden look bad, and now have such power (if only tenuously) to block a strike ban. America's threatened rail strike was also contained to freight, as American passenger RR workers lack the scheduling problems that prompted the (threatened) strike.

We already see Sunak's long-term strategy here anyway: as public services close more will be shifted to online-only. The article mentions this vis-a-vis education and healthcare but this will be forced more generally as transport closes. This will also permit outright firings and service closures which is his only real response to the strikes, as he has not postulated any way to resolve them otherwise and lacks the votes to do so.