Print this article One of Joe Biden’s first actions as president was to begin to fulfill his promise to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen” and fire Peter Robb, the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. This was an unusual act for a new president, but Robb’s sacking was of great symbolic importance. Forty years ago next week, Peter Robb played a leading role in one of Ronald Reagan’s most important domestic victories: firing the striking air traffic controllers. Reagan’s lesson is one that Biden wouldn’t dare heed, and that is a lesson we can learn about the new president himself.