"Uh...lab workers belong to a union, don't they? 2 + 2 ="
Usually not, but they may be at this place considering the ties to UC. Even so, it is far more likely hired union thugs with experience in such things, if in fact this was work-related (I'm still not 100% convinced).
In fact most state university labs are unionized.
Faculty and research scientists may be in such unions as AAUP but the majority of the workers are in more tradiational unions.