I can easily see it as post COVID pains that training new ATC workers takes months to years.
[1]: https://www.npr.org/2021/08/05/1025018833/looking-back-on-wh...
An analogy is, "how did 9/11 affect you?". I was born in 83. I can talk about this for hours. Anyone born after (or even near it) just know that TSA is a fact of life with that time when "airplanes crashed into some towers". -And this is the next generation of ATC controllers.
Unions, labor relations, Regan, etc for those under 30 have no idea.
Younger people also know aviation history, even if they don’t have the visceral experiences of the past. Reagan’s mass firing of ATCs is also a landmark in his domestic policy; I would expect most high school graduates to be at least aware of it.
But sadly, I believe you're in the minority... a very small one, that is under 40 and have their viewpoint include Regan's actions.
If you are warned if you don't go to work you'll be fired, and you don't go to work, then guess what? You will be fired.
That's true in basically any industry.
The actual circumstances of their firing are worth reading about: striking is legal for unions except for unions of government employees, for whom it is explicitly illegal. What makes the situation unusual is the extreme response by the Reagan administration.
It is always a question of pay to quality of life ratios. Now that there exist jobs that provide higher quality of life due to broadband internet, other jobs with lower quality of life have to increase pay to compete for quality candidates.
Sure such a number exists but it's probably not worth the conversation if it's astronomic.
In my case, there is no such number: either the requirements cannot be met remotely in which case the occupation is novel and uninteresting to me or the employer is unwilling to let me work remotely for equal pay in which case the lack of respect is mutual. Outside of exigent circumstances there simply is no such number for me.
My observation has been that remote work is often a perk of already good jobs with good pay. I don't see a lot of minimum wage remote work. A good chunk of remote workers don't strictly _need_ more money, and are unlikely to be enticed with a 10% raise.
I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I work remotely, and am not particularly interested in going back to the office. I probably do have a $x that would get me back in the office, but it would probably take something like a 50-100% total comp raise. I'm doubtful anyone wants to pay that, and even if they did I'd be concerned about job security at that level of pay.