Yes, it's painful. That is the point of the strike - to show how vital the bus service is. In America, people on strike in the car and TV industry are returning to work - mainly because Christmas is coming. The bus union involved here in the NE have seen through this ploy, IMHO. The bus company is banking on them accepting, rather than them spoiling their DCs' Christmas by carrying on with no earnings coming in.
When I was in Durham as an undergraduate, there was a miners' strike.
The 1972 UK miners' strike was a major dispute over pay between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Conservative Edward Heath government of the United Kingdom. Miners' wages had not kept pace with those of other industrial workers since 1960. The strike began on 9 January 1972 and ended on 28 February 1972, when the miners returned to work. The strike was called by the National Executive Committee of the NUM and ended when the miners accepted an improved pay offer in a ballot. It was the first time since 1926 that British miners had been on official strike, but there had been a widespread unofficial strike in 1969.
It was quite fun at the time - because I was aged 19 and at university. Blackouts were rotated by area, so I often had an excuse to visit my friends in Castle (University College), as they would have power when we in Aidan's College did not, and vice versa.
But it wasn't such fun for those living those in East Durham, where most of the remaining mines were. The earlier, West Durham, mines were mostly exhausted, leaving a population dependant on wives working in the clothing manufacturing industry. Which, of course, has now moved overseas.