Why Richmond IKEA employees are still off the job and on strike

What a lot of people don't seem to realize is that perhaps the biggest remaining issue keeping these employees on strike seems to be the same as it was months ago. It's because IKEA is refusing to FIRE certain employees:

At issue is the status of 35 or so unionized workers who returned to their jobs early in the dispute. They have been expelled by the union, which has demanded they be removed from the workplace before the union workers return to their jobs, should an agreement be reached.

I can understand sometimes how unions came about and why sometimes they have positive effects for employees. Overall I'm not a big fan of them though, and here though I definitely favour IKEA over the union in question.