The article makes the action seem unpopular, but I remember it differently. To my blue-collar family, the air traffic controllers were holding up travel and were demanding even more money. The author sees it from a different angle, I think.

It's worth noting that 3 years later Reagan won re-election by winning 49 of 50 states. He lost only Minnesota, where he did not campaign. (He thought it would be unsporting and mean spirited, having seen the way polling was going.)