The tube strike is miserable. It is also how bargaining is supposed to work
Both sides say the gap has narrowed. That is what four days of pain buys
Nobody enjoys a tube strike. I spent Thursday on a bus that took ninety minutes to cross three miles of London, and I am not about to defend that as a pleasant experience.
But the point of a strike is to be costly to both sides, and the news that the gap on pay has narrowed after four days is not a sign of failure. It is the mechanism working.
The alternative, in which one side simply imposes terms, is tidier. It is also how you get a workforce that leaves.
Jo Hartley is a Daily Meridian columnist