That's what the PATCO controllers thought in '81, also. They figured their illegal strike would cause enough damage to get what they wanted, even if a bunch of guys crossed the lines. Didn't work out that way, did it? Tons of them ended up crossing the lines, and Reagan replaced the rest with military controllers. You think we can do better? I think not. It's a recipe for disaster.
I'm fairly sure that in today's day and age, you couldn't replace pilots with pilots from the military...the military pilots are somewhat busy doing other things right now.