What is it called when you cross a picket line?
Picketing is a common tactic used by trade unions during strikes, who will try to prevent dissident members of the union, members of other unions and non-unionised workers from working. Those who cross the picket line and work despite the strike are known pejoratively as scabs.
What does it mean to break a picket line?
Crossing or not crossing a picket line can be a highly personal decision for an employee. Crossing the line can result in harassment from picketing co-workers and, in some cases, threats of violence. But honoring the picket line can leave employees feeling vulnerable about financial and job security.
What happens if you cross a union picket line?
Many courts hold that unions have the power to discipline their members for crossing a picket line. Such discipline can include imposing a significant fine and that the union can collect by suing the employee in state court.
What is a line of striking workers called?
A picket line is the description given to those who gather outside or near the entrance of the workplace. These include striking workers, workers locked out by their employer and trade union representatives.
What is a scab union term?
One of the most well-known union words is “scab.” It’s a name given to workers who break strikes and cross picket lines.
Why is it called a scab when you cross the picket line?
The term goes back to the 18th century, and probably refers to diseases common in that era that left victims with infectious scabs. Workers crossing picket lines would be “scabb’d” by the other union members (shunned and forced out of their jobs).
Why should you never cross a picket line?
You will have to know what to do — so never cross a picket line. It is the strongest action workers can take in an economy that is otherwise stacked against them. By going on strike, employees shut down the jobsite by refusing to work. Even if it doesn’t seem like you have a stake in their fight, you probably do.
What is the difference between strike and picketing?
The strike must be a protected strike. In normal cases, employees picket at their own place of work in support of their strike against their own employer. Cases do arise, however, where employees picket at their own place of work in support of a strike between another employer and its employees.
What does the union term scab mean?
Are you allowed to cross picket lines?
A person who decides to cross a picket line must be allowed to do so. It is unlawful for a union to discipline a member for crossing a picket line. or unemployed members who have lost their jobs for reasons connected with the dispute (e.g. members made redundant).
What is difference between picketing and strike?
Strike is a cessation of work whereas picketing is assembling outside a workplace or location to prevent others from going to work. This is the key difference between strike and picketing.
What is a scab in a union?
Why are workers called scabs?
A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite an ongoing strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who were not employed by the company before the trade union dispute, but rather hired after or during the strike to keep the organization running.
Can I be fired for not crossing a picket line?
No law can keep your employer from taking an adverse employment action against you, but you have the legal right to refuse to cross a picket line and your employer must have a legitimate business reason for terminating your employment other than your decision to honor a picket line.
Why are they called scabs strike?
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. The term “scab” gained wide spread recognition when famous author Jack London used it in 1913 in his enduring poem: “Ode to a Scab.”
When did the term scab originate?
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. 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].