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The person overseeing the NLRB was the lawyer on the side of the government breaking the air traffic controllers union under Reagan and generally sides against unions.

This is assuming they have the money to pursue the back pay in court and the NLRB ends up agreeing with them.

oh for sure man, NLRB in the age of trump is a guaranteed win. Not to mention the pain and struggle of being unemployed in the meantime. Quality addition to the discussion here.

But I thought they were unsuccessful in joining the union.

I think OP is referring to a potential settlement. The engineers' case alleges the startup violated the National Labor Relations Act.

it's illegal to fire someone for joining a union, attempting to join a union, or forming a union.

Alex is probably referring to their settlement offers if they prove their case to the NLRB. But the truth is the penalty will probably be far less... they'll likely just be required to rehire the employee and back pay wages from the date they were fired to the day they're rehired (if they win).

I think that was a dry joke about "lazy union workers".