THE government was accused of “patronising” struggling nurses and other workers today by refusing to negotiate as a winter rebellion over pay began to bite deeper.

Most rail services were at a standstill as train drivers took strike action on Saturday.

On Wednesday 115,000 postal workers, 70,000 university lecturers and hundreds of support staff, as well as 4,000 sixth-form college teachers, will strike.

Members of the 300,000-strong Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will stage the first national strike in the 106-year history of their union on December 15 and 20.

And 100,000 civil servants will join the rebellion on dates to be announced.

The action will continue throughout December and January.

But the government is maintaining its hard-line stance by refusing to even negotiate.

On Saturday the RCN pleaded with Health Secretary Steve Barclay in a letter asking him to negotiate, but also warned him “negotiate or nothing.”

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady accused the government of making “political choices” by lifting the cap on bank bosses’ bonuses while driving down nurses’ pay.

She said every public-sector worker in Britain could be given an inflation-proof pay rise at a stroke if the government taxed profits on sales of second homes and shares at the same rate as income tax.

“It feels incredibly patronising for it to be suggested that a predominantly female profession can somehow get by on another wage cut when they are £5,000 worse off in real terms since 2010,” she said.

“The tone from government in refusing to meet union leaders to negotiate feels incredibly patronising to women and is wrong.

“This is about political choices — we have seen the cap lifted on bankers’ bonuses but nurses’ pay driven down.

“These are political choices and the government has got to be clear which side it is on when people are struggling.

“Strikes are a symptom, they are not the cause, the cause is about protecting jobs, about protecting safety, about people’s work-life balance and, of course, having fair pay.

“This is an industry that’s made £500 million of profit and staff, quite rightly, who have worked through Covid, want their fair share.”

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said that he would “encourage and help” the two sides in the rail industry dispute reach a settlement.

But while rail operators are compensated with taxpayers’ cash for loss of profits during strike action, Mr Harper said he did not have a “bottomless pit of taxpayers’ money” for wage increases and insisted that inflation-busting pay rises are “unaffordable.”

Labour’s shadow housing and communities secretary Lisa Nandy said: “They’re unaffordable because of 12 years of Tory government and 44 days in which Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng crashed the economy.

“I think there ought to be a level of humility about that within government.

“What he should be doing is moving heaven and earth to try and avert strikes coming up this winter.

“It’s been a really tough year for a lot of people and nobody wants to see strikes, least of all the people who are having to resort to strike action.”

Responding to a letter from Mr Steve Barclay asking for talks, RCN general secretary and chief executive Pat Cullen responded: “If the negotiation table is empty, we can see you are not serious about progress. 

“On behalf of every nurse, let’s negotiate.”

Responding to comments from Transport Secretary Mark Harper that public sector pay rises in line with inflation are “unaffordable”, RCN general secretary and chief executive, Pat Cullen, said: “While billions of pounds is being spent on temporary measures like agency staff to stick a plaster on the NHS workforce crisis, we are told a pay rise for nursing staff is unaffordable.

“With 47,000 nurse vacancies in England’s NHS alone, a pay rise for nurses isn’t just about fair pay – it’s about retaining and recruiting enough nurses to safely care for patients.

“Strike action is always a last resort but for too long we have been ignored. Nursing staff won’t stand by while their patients are put in harm’s way – they are doing this for themselves and for their patients."