[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.