Unions have long sought to demonize replacement workers, union members who cross picket lines, and others whom the unions label scabs. Sometimes, this takes the form of implied or explicit threats or other efforts to create fear and to intimidate. Things didn't go quite as planned. During the British miners' strike of the early 1980s, violent clashes between miners and police escalated when buses of scabs were brought in to replace them. The court applied the actual malice test established by the U.S. Supreme Court in New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), which applied to public figures and public issues. Meaning of the word scab union. They have chosen to STOP paying Union Dues. One guy called me a scab outright. The term "scab" is a highly derogatory and "fighting word" most frequently used to refer to people who continue to work when trade unionists go on strike action. Scab labor has the potential to completely undermine the power of a labor union. How are your finances? A scab is someone who crosses a picket line to work. In 1999, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled in Dunn v. Air Line Pilots Association that ALPAs compilation of a scab list during a 1989 sympathy strike against Eastern Air Lines, and its distribution of 50,000 copies of that list after the strike, did not constitute defamation. It is a test to which workingmen should not be subjected. They put our names out there so people will pressure us, said the worker. A successful relationship between union laborers and employers relies on a delicate balance of power. February, 2003. In 1892, there was a series of famous strikes in the United States -- a general strike in New Orleans, a copper miners' strike in Idaho and a coal miners' strike in Tennessee -- but none became as famous as the Homestead Strike against Andrew Carnegie's steel empire in Pennsylvania [source: PBS]. noun 0 0 Scabies or mange in domestic animals or livestock, especially sheep. They say that scabs are necessary bargaining chips at the negotiation table to combat unfair union demands. Labor activists believe that striking is an effective tool, and that if the workers band together, they can achieve their goals. Labor unions are founded on the principle of collective bargaining. Can you live on Social Security benefits? I was disgusted by it. Local 1853 President Tim Stannard admitted to publishing the list. One potentially effective approach to protect dissenting workers from union bullying would be a wider application of the doctrine known as Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, or the tort of outrage. Here, a claim of harassment must pass a four-part test: (1) the defendant acted intentionally or recklessly; (2) the defendants conduct was extreme and outrageous; (3) the defendants act was the cause of the distress; and (4) the plaintiff suffered severe emotional distress as a result of the defendants behavior. However, if the union asks for an excessive or above-market wage increase, then the employer will easily find replacement workers willing to accept the lower but reasonable market price. He takes from a striker what he knows he could never earn by his own merit: a decent job. My Union retirees fought for these benefits, so if you don't want them, don't take them. The context of his remark was a news report that AFSCME Local 1603, which represents workers at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, had posted the names of workers who exercised their legal right to leave the union. The new UAW secretary-treasurer, Gary Casteel, the unions point man during its unsuccessful 2013-14 organizing drive at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, also backs the practice. (2) : a union member who refuses to strike or returns to work before a strike has ended. by Union Striker October 4, 2005. He helps management destroy his and your profession, often ending up under conditions he/she wouldnt even have scabbed for. The term "scab" was first used in the 13th century to mean a nasty, itchy skin disease or the crust that forms on a wound. Consider the behavior of the United Auto Workers during a pair of strikes against Caterpillar Inc. during the 1990s. In fact, they are not, because all bargaining units in essential services have agreed upon terms for maintaining emergency services in the event of a labor dispute. Whether or not Williams had sanctioned or taken part in the intimidation campaign is a separate issue. One is an act of God (or devil) and the other is an act of man. In Household Words, Stephanie Smith draws a clear line from the one definition to the other: From blemish to strikebreaker, the history of the word scab shows a displacement of meaning from the visceral or physical to the moral register Just as a scab is a physical lesion, the strikebreaking scab disfigures the social body of laborboth the solidarity of workers and the dignity of work. October 17, 2008http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/263745/Herrin, Diaz, Richard. Usually when someone scabs they will repeatedly ask a passer by (especally someone they know by name) for the thing they are after until they give in. April-May, 2007http://www.sa.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=68&Itemid=106, Encyclopdia Britannica Online. Nearly every major labor strike of the19th and early 20th century includes tales of injury, torture and even the death of scabs at the hands of striking workers. This is completely normal and is the result of the hemoglobin from red blood cells in the scab being broken down and washed away. Hospitals have the option to bargain in good faith, move and divert patients or line up scab workers. . The unions behavior during these strikes, which lasted a total of nearly two years, prompted eight scabs, and four of their spouses, to sue the UAW and an affiliate for extraordinary harm caused to them by the unions outrageous conduct. Operating from scab lists, union loyalists made frequent threatening phone calls to the line-crossers homes on the order of: Look out for your wife and son and Look out for your house. Callers also would warn wives with lines such as Your husband could get shot and Your husband better not cross that picket line if he knows whats good for him. Offspring were not spared either. Would it not make sense, therefore, to treat the dissemination of such lists as punishable insofar as they facilitate terroristic threats or behavior. Major League Baseball (MLB) players went on strike midseason in 1994 when they refused to accept a salary cap. What is a scab in Australia? Public opinion turned against the union when two striking miners dropped a 45-pound (20.4-kilogram) cement block onto the car of a scab, killing the driver [source: BBC]. This anti-scab legislation should: Prohibit employers from using replacement workers for the duration of any legal strike or lockout, specifically banning the use of any employee or contracted workers to perform the duties of a bargaining unit employee; 2. According to an independent study, a significant number of tires produced by replacement workers at the Firestone plan in Decatur, Ill. in 1994 and 1995 were defective and had potentially deadly tread separations. UAW Local 31, which represents nearly 3,000 wage and salary workers at the Fairfax GM assembly plant in Kansas City, Kan., has published the names of non-joining workers on its website under the category, Important Information. One nonunion worker at the plant, insisting upon anonymity, said the motive is coercion: They cant have dissenters among their ranks because it doesnt look good to anyone thinking about joining.. National Bureau of Economic Research. Scab has two meanings.The dark crust over a wound while it is healing.A worker that refuses to join a union when one is available where they work. . Contents 1 History 2 Appearance The United Auto Workers fondness for scab lists never really went away; it just went south. In general, people want more money and benefits, yet are not putting out any more work effort. A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite an ongoing strike. The Pinkertons were met with violent resistance. What does the word scab mean in social studies? It is of more than passing significance that a key organizer of those Caterpillar strikes, Dennis Williams, last June became UAW general president after having served as secretary-treasurer. Strikebreakers, whether or not they belong to a union, undercut representation and collective bargaining. Doing this; she go's down to the Union hall later and tries to pick up a strike check. For example, should nurses be able to strike? Master Pilot Scablist that describes scabs this way: A SCAB takes your job, a job he could not get under normal circumstances. The union, upset that wages haven't increased in years, calls for a strike. Public employee unions also have taken to assembling scab lists. Can you feel the noose tightening? The rest of the season, including the World Series, was canceled. In the U.S., the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935 establishes strict protections for unions, but allows employers to permanently replace striking workers if the strike is based on economic gain [source: Legal Dictionary]. (both meaning "scab, itch"), the word "scab" had become an insult by the late . So it makes sense that 'scab' would become an insult, rather than acar. Delivered to your inbox! To what extremes do unions go to discourage non-joining workers? What language? Your example sounds typical of those who reason in favor of profits and productivity for the benefit of large corporations who pay their board of directors and executive staff millions while their workers starve. A trade union that serves the employer more than the workers. Thus, the set A Bread "A union B" or "the union of A and B"is defined as the set that consists of all elements belonging to either set A or set B (or both). . A nurse working during a strike is a continuation of essential services, not strikebreaking. Reagan's decision was a huge blow to the power of unions. This is ugly stuff. How Unions Use "Scab" Lists to Intimidate Workers. Every company has one! Also, quit taking Saturday and Sunday off. Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article: Dave Roos So long as they know that making (or carrying out) threats of physical assault and property damage have a good chance of not being punished, they have an incentive to generate these lists. Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge 1426, the union representing workers at the Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. plant in Sioux City, Iowa (and which struck in 2007), addressed an open letter to scabs within the local. Does a yellow scab mean healing? . About the Author: Carl F. Horowitz heads the Organized Labor Accountability Project for the National Legal and Policy Center in Falls Church, Virginia. American writer Jack London was no fan of scab labor. After this I will never come back to the UAW. And he added: What they do behind the scenes is harass non-members, those who choose not to belong. On Nov. 20, 1816, the term "scab" was used by the Albany Typographical Society to describe those who break strikes and work against union members. Andrew Carnegie never recovered from the tragic events at Homestead, saying later, "but the false step was made in trying to run the Homestead Works with new men. A union anti-scab campaign does more than simply express disapproval; it enables full-scale character assassination. January 8, 2005http://www.iedm.org/main/show_editorials_fr.php?editorials_id=87, Noceda, Kristopher. Bikini, bourbon, and badminton were places first. Last week, readers@amyh914 and @johnjaramillo13 were wondering about the origins of scab as an insult for people who cross picket lines. 2 : a union member who refuses to strike or returns to work before a strike has ended. That was in the 50s. the union of two sets. As we've seen, quite a bit of controversy and risk of physical danger surrounds labor scabs. Can you see how our tactics are changing? 'What is a scab?' The formation of the breakaway Union of Democratic Mineworkers in Nottinghamshire during the 1984/5 miners strike broke the monopoly of the National Union of Mineworkers.. Their union counterparts are earning $37-50 per hour plus benefits and retirement for the same highly skilled work. Two hundred years later, it appeared with the common definition we know today, a hard crust that forms over a wound. Don't ask "why" until you are sure "if." The term "scab" does not apply to ALL non-union workers. What does the term scab mean in construction? Copyright 2022 California Policy Center. 1 : a worker who refuses to join a labor union. Workers typically form a band in front of the company they work for to inform people that a strike is going on, and why. For lots more information on scabs, strikes and unions, follow the links on the next page. Charles W. Baird. The same claim is made against outsourcing. In an earlier case, the National Labor Relations Board cited the Jack London description as permissible speech during a labor dispute. More temperate labor activists and unions use the term strike breaker instead, but the slang term is often used in speeches and literature designed to fire up the strikers. They don't make insults quite like that anymore. A "scab" a derogatory term used to describe a strike breaker. The term "scab" was first used in the 13th century to mean a nasty, itchy skin disease or the crust that forms on a wound. You are wondering about the question what does scab mean but currently there is no answer, so let kienthuctudonghoa.com summarize and list the top articles with the question. A skin wound that doesn't heal, heals slowly or heals but tends to recur is known as a chronic wound. Some employers view the right to hire scab labor as a way to maintain that balance. exciting challenge of being a PublicPeople researcher and writer. n. 1. "Unfair Labor Practice"http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Unfair+Labor+Practice, The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Then, if that doesnt work, you guys can go out and beat them up.. While the new contract preserved management-supported productivity gains, it also required that all 160 workers fired for participation in acts of violence be rehired. This little known plugin reveals the answer. This is also known as crossing the picket line and can result in their being shunned or assaulted. "UNITED STEEL, PAPER AND FORESTRY, RUBBER, MANUFACTURING, ENERGY, ALLIED INDUSTRIAL AND SERVICE WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, AFL-CIO, Canadian Labour Congress. Time and again, by their demonstrated behavior, unions have revealed that the real purpose behind creating and disseminating scab lists is intimidation. One of the earliest known recordings is from 1777: the Conflict would not been [sic] so sharp had not there been so many dirty Scabs; no Doubt but timely Notice will be taken of them." Those who do travel nursing might do this quite often, although I imagine that many travel nurses would turn down a strike assignment. . How to use a word that (literally) drives some pe Editor Emily Brewster clarifies the difference. The only thing I can add to the origins of this word is this: prior to being introduced into 17th century English it was a Scandanavian word for a medical wound type of scab. View complete answer on variety.com Workers Have a Fundamental Right to Accept Any Employment Terms They Wish. The term is also used to refer to workers who cave too easily to concessions offered by a company. . Union saboteurs also vandalized employee cars, often planting jack rocks and roofing nails under their tires, whether at home or work. By 1806, the word "scab" arrived at its current meaning -- a strikebreaker who willingly crosses the picket line [source: Lexicon of Labor, Online Etymology Dictionary]. Early in the next century, "scab" became even more specialized and started being applied specifically to workers who crossed picket lines to take the place of striking workers, as in this testimony from the trial of striking Philadelphia bootmakers: I concluded at that time I would turn a scab, unknown to them, and I would continue my work and not let them know of it.. 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