I’m sorry but if you support the company on this, IMO you are wrong. This is nothing more than union mentality run amok.
I don't support the company on this, but my initial statement was unclear. I don't think the company was "right" in any moral sense. I only meant that they did what they were legally required to do by their lawyers and the signed contract. As a company they are required to adhere to the contract. I should not have used the word "right" for that action.
However, the lifeguard did the morally right thing, and the other lifeguards rightly supported him. The company fired the lifeguards for doing the morally right thing, because the contract required it.
If the company wanted to be morally correct, they'd hire the lifeguards back, all of them, immediately.
But most important, that immoral contract would be thrown out immediately also. Along with the lawyer(s) who drafted and required it.