That's not unique to an air traffic controller.
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.
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.