Strike action

Strike action (or simply a strike) is the mass refusal by groups of workers to perform work. Strikes first became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines. In most countries they were quickly made illegal as factory owners had far more political power than the workers. Most western countries legalized striking partially in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.

Scabs

People hired to replace striking workers are usually known as scabs. The terms strike-breaker, blackleg, and scab labor are also used. Unionists use the epithet "scab" to refer to workers who are willing to accept terms that union workers have rejected and damage the efficacy of the strike action. The word comes from the idea that the "scabs" are covering a wound.

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During Economic Strikes, scabs may be hired as permanent replacements and are normally regarded by unionists as obscenely cruel and short-sightedly selfish. Jack London characterized scabs thusly: "After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with which to make a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a water logged brain and a combination backbone made of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, the scab carries a tumor of rotten principles...There is nothing lower than a scab."

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A scab "movement" of sorts has developed in the profession of nursing, claiming an interest in the rights and care of patients during hospital strikes and opposing what they term the selfishness of striking healthcare professionals. Union nurses point to extrordinarily high salaries taken by strikebreaking nurses and accuse them of being "ambulance chasers" that undermine the potential for improved living standards and better staffed and equipped medical facilities for all in the long run.

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