Protection of T&C's and a reasonable offer of a wage rise, all more important than you or I going anywhere.
If stopping me from going anywhere *was* resulting in protecting T&Cs and getting a decent wage rise, then you may have a point - but clearly, after all this time, it isn't.
The Government don't care. According to this thread it seems the drivers don't particularly care either, as it seems they can make up the money they lose on strike some other time. So it seems it is is just the passengers trying to use the railway that care, and they're the one group that have no say in the dispute.
Except of course they can eventually, by being driven to find alternatives to relying on the railway, new habits that will more likely than not stick. The government would most probably be happy with that as an outcome too, as they can then justify slashing frequencies, maybe entire lines, and thus jobs.
I know I've spent a lot less on the railway over the past 18 months than usual, and I'm slowly adjusting to new habits that don't involve the railway at all. If I end up buying a car, or even just having different sorts of holidays that involve a lot less rail travel, that's significantly less money over the next 10-20 years that the railway will get out of me.