"work-to-rule" action = slowdown
"Work to rule" is one way of putting it. "Slowdown" is another, rendering the operations unworkable, and making a shutdown necessary. I showed the two sides of the argument, and you're only listening to one of them.
Bush isn't doing anything right now except, as I understand it, providing the mediator. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the President's job to catch every economic sparrow that falls in the private sector. No doubt if a Democrat was President, he would already be on the picket lines, swaying back and forth with the workers and singing socialist folk songs.
And the air traffic controllers were Federal employees, prohibited from striking. Whole different kettle of fish.