I think these are great questions, but I'm probably not the best person to answer them. Hopefully someone else here has a better understanding of unions. But,

I think these are great questions, but I'm probably not the best person to answer them. Hopefully someone else here has a better understanding of unions. But, as far as I can tell this isn't a fight, but it's more like marketing to the public in a way that might be beneficial for future negotiations. I guess a union's purpose is to protect and benefit it's members. A example scenario I could imagine (complete fiction) might be Boeing tries to look good to shareholders by laying off several teams, blaming engineers and management of them for the safety issues. This could benefit the company financially. By preemptively making sure the public is aware that corporate culture is to blame it'd likely make a move like that far harder to enact. Making it clear that this is the fault of the corporation, not the individuals, keeps the union members safe in this case. This scenario is likely unrealistic. But maybe someone has a better explanation/historical example?