Testing the limits of deregulation and a new presidency, 14,000 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers’ Organization struck on August 3, 1981 for higher wages, despite provisos to federal employees forbidding such job actions. The ensuing traffic chaos intensified when President Ronald Reagan dramatically fired all air-traffic controllers—sending a definitive signal about union activism and management to the public and private sector. This also devastated those adapted to this highly stressful job; only in 1993 did President Clinton sign a bill allowing them to return to work.