Experience would help, especially when dealing with old, politically-connected organizations.

Going on their own would probably also be hard, since union laws in the US are complicated.

None of this stuff is taught in engineering courses in college. I think lack of real world experience is a pretty good explanation. Hopefully they can course correct before it snowballs. Finding a trustworthy old-hat union organizer or ten, and having them act as an advisor might help.

It tells you what kind of life experience they have to inform their decisions, including to unionize with a job like that to begin with. I think it speaks for itself.

The Activists or the Fulltimers? :-)