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Workers strike definition11/23/2023 One description from 1777 stated that “the Conflict would not have been so sharp had there not been so many dirty Scabs no Doubt but timely Notice will be taken of them.” The spurious quote from Jack London was in use by 1926. In 18th Century England, laborers used it to denounce their peers who were unwilling to join a strike. For more than 800 years, it’s been applied to people who are untrustworthy or despicable. The term comes from Latin scabere, “to scratch,” and from Old Norse for the crust that forms over a wound or sore. Such campaigns may produce assaults, vandalism, and among the targets, medical problems and suicide attempts. A union anti-scab campaign does more than simply express disapproval it enables full-scale character assassination. The intent is to inflict intense feelings of fear, shame, and self-loathing upon persons who choose to go to work at wages less than those demanded by a union, to tell dissenting individuals that they must join the union-driven majority or face frightful consequences. The word scab suggests something unsightly and diseased. He didn’t, but the passage is often cited by union activists to express their opinion of replacement workers and picket-line crossers. Jack London, the early-20th Century fiction writer and journalist, is supposed to have said that. No man has a right to scab so long as there is a pool of water to drown his carcass in, or a rope long enough to hang his body with. When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and Angels weep in Heaven, and the Devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles. A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue. You may have seen this description:Īfter God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with which he made a scab. Often, names are compiled on a “scab list.” Over the years, unions have made effective use of the hatred of scabs, to maximize their bargaining advantage. Unions have long have practiced the dark art of gathering the identities of such persons and exposing them to shame and intimidation among fellow workers. ![]() In the annals of labor history, few characters are more reviled than the so-called “scab”-the worker who refuses to join a union, or worse, whether or not a member, crosses a picket line during a strike. ![]() Now the Obama administration’s National Labor Relations Board is pressuring employers to give personal information to unions, while the Internet is providing new ways to publicize “scab lists” and make people toe the union line. 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. How Unions Use "Scab" Lists to Intimidate Workers
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