It seems that every week there is another strike.

This week teachers are taking action and rail workers have announced more dates in their long-running dispute with Network Rail and some train operating companies.

With rising energy costs driving up the cost of living, with rocketing gas and electric bills, food shopping rising weekly and pretty much everything that is produced and purchased costing more, people are seeing their incomes coming under serious pressure.

It is not surprising then, that people are asking for an increase in pay that reflects those rising costs.

Earlier this year cleansing and home care staff were in the vanguard of council strikes which led to a pay deal for all council workers.

With all these workers going on strike, which means they lose money when they walk out, it represents hundreds of thousands of working people telling the Government they are seeing their standard of living eroded and they won’t accept it.

Are they all wrong?

Ultimately, it is the Government, being responsible for public services and finances, that is responsible for ensuring public sector workers are paid properly.

How the detail is worked out is a matter for the unions and the employers.

But many, in parts of the Government and also in sections of the media, are quick to highlight the disruption.

It is clearly designed to turn the rest of the public against those taking action to protect their pay and conditions at work.

Firstly, the obvious point is if strike action didn’t cause some disruption, then the action would have little impact and could easily be ignored.

The whole point is to show that the work is necessary and of value to the public and the wider economy.

Also, those who are telling the workers who are on strike are in all likelihood often paid more than most of the workers looking for a fair pay rise.

Those opposed to the strikes, and they are generally opposed to all strikes, are eager to highlight some who are on higher salaries.

The main example of this is the rail strikes where it is pointed out that some drivers earn salaries in excess of £40,000. Hardly millionaires.

Also train drivers are members of Aslef, a different union from RMT and the wider workforce that is out on strike.

The reality is most of the workers on strike are earning much lower wages.

Similarly for nurses and teachers. The starting salary for teachers in Scotland is around £28,000 and the average is around £34,000.

For nurses, it is similar amounts and for local government workers, it can be considerably lower.

The fact that public sector is generally more unionised than most of the private sector means that they are more likely to take strike action.

The Government and some national media openly seek to divide the public to claim the country is being ‘held to ransom’.

The UK Government is being urged by Tory backbenchers to implement even tougher anti-strike laws to weaken workers efforts to negotiate pay and condition deals.

But the truth is those on strike are the public. Men and women trying to earn a living, achieve a work-life balance and ensure they have a decent pension when they retire.

Previously public sector pensions have been branded as “gold-plated” when actually the average pension has been considerably less than £10,000 a year.

There will be very few people who do not have a friend or family member who has been involved in the industrial action of the last year.

Whether it is council workers in cleansing or care, rail and train staff, nursing and NHS staff, postal workers or teachers, most people will know or live beside someone involved.

That is a large part of the workforce and it is a workforce we all provide services we all rely on.

We can all be certain while the majority of people in Scotland and across the UK are concerned about rising costs now and in the future, those at the top of the organisations negotiating for the employers, will be less likely to be losing sleep because of their finances.

And the Government ministers, both at Holyrood and Westminster, while telling people there is no more money for pay rises can also be sure to afford the rising bills with six-figure salaries.

The language is deliberate and designed to turn people against industrial action and those taking the action.

It is designed for people to accept the cost of everything will go up but when it comes to wages, the cost of labour, a rise is not affordable.

It has to be remembered that the people taking strike action are doing so, to protect their salaries, to not see them diminish in value and lead to a lowering of wages and standards for everyone.

Otherwise, those who seek to denigrate workers taking action will be successful in their quest to see working people bear the brunt of the cost-of-living crisis, while others continue to increase their wealth.