Firing someone in retaliation for union organizing, at least in principle, can be illegal. However employers are also entitled to fire anyone, at any time, as long it isn't for an illegal reason, and you have to prove that the reason was illegal. And employees can be fired during a strike--look at what happened to the air traffic controllers.

Judging by the comments at the Sister's Camelot site, the members of the collective feel betrayed by Shuge because
they feel that when the collective didn't do what he wanted, rather than supporting their decision, which, as a member of the collective, he was committed to do, he organized his workers to get leverage against the collective.

That's a pretty good reason to toss someone out of the collective, which is essentially what they did. And since, as a member of the collective, he was authorized by the collective to hire canvassing contractors, he is, defacto, out of a job. It's arguable, of course.

Also, since Shuge was a member of the collective, and acted on behalf of the collective when he hired and managed the canvassers, he could be considered to be the employer, not an employee, and, as an employer, his his union recruiting activities are pretty questionable--after all, when the guy that has the power to hire and fire "asks" you to join the union, what do you do?

We haven't even gotten to the question of whether this union legally represents the "strikers" or whether the the strike is a legally constituted strike. There is another question, too, and that is, who do the canvassers actually work for?

All this stuff will have to be considered in whatever resolution efforts follow-there could be binding arbitration, or even lawsuits.

Curiously enough, even though the there are a small number of people involved, and very little money involved in the operation, resolving the issues could take a while, and cost a lot of money.

My question for you is, did Shuge realize, when he chose this course, that the immediate result might be that he would be expelled from the collective and lose his job? And, did he consider that a long term result might be that the collective would be destroyed, and that the conflict that he began had the potential to leave permanent scars in the larger community?

So the answer is, yes, I've heard of this kind of thing happening-in strike situations people can lose their jobs and not get them back.