With their current membership of just 230 people, the ~$500k annual memberships probably won't get anywhere near to paying for the protracted legal battle they're surely about to enter...
There are practical and legal thresholds, yeah; if X% of the company doesn't join over the next N months, you'll probably see lines in Google-related articles about the "failed attempt to form a union", even if it doesn't warrant headlines.
I should also note that 1% is like, a starting number here. If the union is successfully formed and dues start accumulating "Let's cut the union dues to 0.5%" is going to be an extremely popular position for (prospective) union leaders to take.
Pretty big gamble (even though it shouldn't be) for those people who have signed on if they don't meet that threshold. I think tech has been very resistant to unionize.
