I don’t know about the engineering union (if there is one), but the Machinists went on strike for 57 days. And the number of days they were on strike is just a small measure of the difficulty they’ve caused. Of course, it might have already been delayed, but there is no question they made it worse. And I would not absolve them from responsibility for the pre-strike delay, either.
Of course, you are right that not every problem the company has is attributable to the union. But like the auto industry, I would place most of the blame on the union.
Misdiagnosing a problem will only lead to the wrong solution.
The 787 problems were not caused by the union.
If you want to understand it you are going to have to look a little deeper.
Here is a little tidbit for the anti-union folks. (I am one of them but not rabidly). The company is hiring people today at the same starting pay as they did 25 years ago. So to say the union has forced excessive wages on the company is just not true.