mailjock wrote:Personally I can't agree that a person who doesn't join a union in a workplace should be termed a scab. Every has the legal right not to join a union and closed-shops will never return. I actually happen to believe that it is a human right to be able to make the choice of whether to join a union or not.
And Btw I have known many non-union members respect picket lines and not cross them so how can they possibly be described as strike breakers.
strike breakers to me are union members who cross official picket lines where a democratic strike decision has been reached or non-union members who are hired to strike break.
Here you are mate. This goes right back to the original meaning of the word as used in the 1800s.:
http://www.answers.com/strike breakers&r=67
scab (skăb)
n.
A crust discharged from and covering a healing wound.
Scabies or mange in domestic animals or livestock, especially sheep.
Any of various plant diseases caused by fungi or bacteria and resulting in crustlike spots on fruit, leaves, or roots.
The spots caused by such a disease.
Slang. A person regarded as contemptible.
A worker who refuses membership in a labor union.
An employee who works while others are on strike; a strikebreaker.
A person hired to replace a striking worker.
intr.v., scabbed, scab·bing, strike breakers.
To become covered with strike breakers or a scab.
To work or take a job as a scab.
[Middle English, from Old Norse skabb.]
The Industrial Workers of the World. The union whose members never scab!
"The working class and the employing class have nothing in common."
