Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

schoolbusserman t1_ir61pro wrote

Reply to comment by NyxOrTreat in Sysco truck drivers in New England go on strike by smartest_kobold

I have never understood the use of the term scabs in this situation. I know its a common derogatory term for people who fill in for striking union workers. But when you have a wound a scab is necessary for healing. It just make no sense for union workers to call them scabs.

6

Jfinn2 t1_ir6d3kt wrote

When the term came in to fashion, people weren't too interested in the beneficial healing properties of scabs. They were ugly and unclean, and closely associated with sores and diseases like Syphillis. Scab as an insult was more broad until the turn of the 18th century labor movement. Stephanie Smith put it well: "Just as a scab is a physical lesion, the strikebreaking scab disfigures the social body of labor—both the solidarity of workers and the dignity of work."

23