We're both talking about the same lady, Tina.
Seniority doesn't matter when you take a job that requires you to leave the union. It basically comes down to two questions: 1. Does management like you? and B. Does anyone in management hate you?
After that preliminary round of eliminations, they start to worry about whether a candidate is qualified and capable of performing their job duties. Truthfully, though, it sometimes seems like they only worry about the prelim' and skip straight to "You're hired!" when they've got the candidate they want.