Polls show huge public support for striking workers, as voters blamed Rishi Sunak's Tories for nurse walkouts.
Almost half of voters (46%) blamed the government for industrial action by nurses and ambulance workers, compared with 17% who blamed unions.
Most of those polls backed tax increases to give NHS staff a pay rise.
And the new YouGov poll for the Times showed a third (33%) also blamed the government for the looming rail strikes.
The poll also found just 37% of Tory voters said they trusted the Prime Minister to handle industrial relations - with 10% of Tories backing Keir Starmer.
A Tory source is quoted in the newspaper as saying: "Voters blame the government for the strikes, they want to know how they are going to fix them, not us."
Rail union boss Mick Lynch yesterday demanded a meeting with Mr Sunak in a last-ditch bid to stop train strikes.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) are due to stage two 48-hour strikes following months of industrial action in a row over pay and conditions.
Mr Lynch, the general secretary, has written to the Prime Minister saying a meeting between the two men was now the best prospect of making any progress.
He said that it was clear that No10 is "directing the mandate for the rail companies and has torpedoed the talks."
"There is no reason why this dispute could not be settled in the same way that RMT has resolved disputes in Scotland and Wales," he wrote.
"Where the Scottish and Welsh governments have had responsibility for mandates, pay settlements for 2022 have been agreed and neither of these settlements have been conditional on cutting staffing, and eroding safety, security and accessibility.
"It is already a national scandal that your government has been paying the train operating companies not to settle the dispute, indemnifying them to the tune of £300 million so that they have no incentive to reach a resolution.
"It's not clear to me why, on top of this, your government has now torpedoed the negotiations, but I now believe that a meeting with yourself represents the best prospect of any renewed progress.
"We have a duty to explore every possible option for settling this dispute and I'm willing to do my part. I hope you will agree to meet me."
