Of course, but strikers are paid workers operating within a legal process, they can't just be easily supplanted by free alternatives as can moderators.
But that's getting off the topic of whether or not the wording of the quoted paragraph reflects reality.
The idea of a strike being 'legal' or not is an unfortunate yoke that labor movements have allowed to be fitted to them. It's a silly idea and should be addressed as such. Labor has power. The collective masses have power over the few who oppress them. It doesn't matter if those people decide to call certain labor actions legal or illegal, they should happen (and must happen) all the same to keep the balance of power equitable.
> they can't just be easily supplanted by free alternatives as can moderators.
That's an incredibly naive take. Do you think there is an abundance of moderators just waiting to fill the ranks? Several SE sites are struggling with a lack of moderators already.
Similarly, there is no abundance of community members curating questions and answers. It's all volunteers, and it's not like there's a huge untapped pool that they can access on-demand.
It's kinda like saying that the entire community can be easily replaced because it's free. No, the community is the business value!
Lastly, the main anti-spam tool of the site (smokedetector-se.org - community-built and -hosted) is also offline as part of the strike. The tooling built by SE the site is in no way shape or form adequate for combating the amount of spam the site receives. Sure, it's not irreplaceable, but it's not "free".
My original point was about an incorrect reading of what the network is there for; the distraction into strikes and whatnot might be of interest but not on that specific point - which holds regardless of your rather silly supposition.
But that's getting off the topic of whether or not the wording of the quoted paragraph reflects reality.