@Starmill is absolutely correct.
@Bodiddly did you really mean "workplaces don't
recognise it"? In the UK an employer can voluntarily recognise a Trade Union representing a trade group, however by law if member density reaches 50% the employer can be forced to recognise a TU for collective bargaining.
(As a rep in another industry) I do agree that a large number of people don't really understand what a TU is really for, especially their experiences may be negative, such as strike action.
A TU isn't doing it's job if it isn't pursuing the best interests of their members. Not the public, or the business customers or non-members but
their members. Sometimes the best interest will lie in the long game, and may have short term pain.
COP26 would simply be too good an opportunity to miss to increase the pressure on this dispute, which frankly needs the pressure increased to come to a head.
Different grades do different jobs and therefore have different worth and different bargaining chips. I'm not surprised that drivers have a better deal: whilst guards and TEs do an excellent and valuable job, drivers take longer to train so represent a more valuable commodity to the business. In my employer different grades have different additional attendance payments reflective of their unique skill sets, resulting in a similar disconnect. Few people bat an eyelid, or see it as unfair (and we're two branches of the same TU).
I can't talk for the RMT but in my branch NOBODY wants to strike. Even withdrawal of goodwill is seen as a failure of industrial relations.