Regardless as https://www.eater.com/23575014/supreme-court-union-case-glac... point's out: in a lot of jobs prep is a required part of the job, so either you get fired for not doing your job or you get sued for losses from the strike.
If the employees here (and in the OP) did the same, they could start the strike by the end of one workday, so that no food/cement would be wasted as it it was never prepared.
Is this not possible in the US? Or is this a case of increasing one-uppance as the relationship between companies and employees is _that bad_?
The latter. America is a low trust, high conflict society. You can argue about “who shot first” but labor relations in America has often escalated to violence by both sides.