Strikebreaker

A strikebreaker (sometimes pejoratively called a scab, blackleg, bootlicker, blackguard or knobstick) is a person who works despite an ongoing strike. Strikebreakers may be current employees (union members or not), or new hires, who are hired after or during the strike to keep the organization running. In continuing to work, or taking jobs at a workplace under current strike, strikebreakers are said to "cross picket lines".

Some countries have passed laws outlawing strikebreakers to give more power to trade unions, other countries have passed right-to-work laws which protect strikebreakers.

Look up strikebreaker in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The right to strike is well-established in international law.^[1] In particular, the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights establishes: "The right to strike, provided that it is exercised in conformity with the laws of the particular country."^[2] The International Labour Organization (ILO) Committee on Freedom of Association and other ILO bodies have interpreted all core ILO conventions as protecting the right to strike as an essential element of the freedom of association as well as the freedom for workers to organize and established principles on the right to strike through rulings.^[3] For example, the ILO has ruled that "the right to strike is an intrinsic corollary of the right of association protected by Convention No. 87."^[4]

The European Social Charter of 1961 was the first international agreement to expressly protect the right to strike.^[5] Similar to international law, the European Union's Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers permits EU member states to regulate the right to strike.^[6]

Striker replacement (hiring workers to replace striking workers during the course of a strike) is not banned or restricted by international law. However, the ILO has concluded striker replacement, while not in contravention of ILO agreements, carries with it significant risks for abuse and places trade union freedoms "in grave jeopardy."^[4][7] Regarding permanent replacement rather than just replacement for the duration of the strike, the ILO has held that "this basic right [to strike] is not really guaranteed when a worker who exercises it legally runs the risk of seeing his or her job taken up permanently by another worker."^[8]

Strikebreaking is also known as black-legging or blacklegging. American lexicographer Stephanie Smith suggests that the word has to do with bootblacking or shoe polish, for an early occurrence of the word was in conjunction with an 1803 American bootmaker's strike.^[20] However, British industrial relations expert J.G. Riddall notes that it may have a racist connotation, as it was used in this way in 1859 in the United Kingdom: "If you dare work we shall consider you as blacks..."^[21] Lexicographer Geoffrey Hughes, however, notes that blackleg and scab are both references to disease, as in the blackleg infectious bacterial disease of sheep and cattle caused by Clostridium chauvoei. He dates the first use of the term blackleg in reference to strikebreaking to the United Kingdom in 1859. The use of the term blackleg for a strikebreaker was, however, previously recorded in 1832 during the trial of special constable George Weddell for killing and slaying Cuthbert Skipsey, a striking pitman, near Chirton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.^[22] Hughes observes that the term was once generally used to indicate a scoundrel, a villain, or a disreputable person.^[23] However, the Northumbrian folk song "Blackleg Miner" is believed to originate from the 1844 strike, which would predate Hughes's reference.^[24] The song is thought to originate from the 1844 Miners' Lockout in the North East Coalfield. David John Douglass claims that the term blackleg has its origins in coal mining, as strikebreakers would often neglect to wash their legs, which would give away that they had been working whilst others had been on strike.^[25]

John McIlroy has suggested that there is a distinction between a blackleg and a scab. He defines a scab as an outsider who is recruited to replace a striking worker, whereas a blackleg is one already employed who goes against a democratic decision of their colleagues to strike, and instead continues to work.^[26] The fact that McIlroy specified that this should be a "democratic" decision has led the historian David Amos to question whether the Nottinghamshire miners in 1984–85 were true blacklegs, given the lack of a democratic vote on the strike.:^[27] "If we use McIlroy's interpretation can the Nottinghamshire miners of 1984-85 be seen to have been 'blacklegging' as against 'scabbing'? However, there is one contentious point in McIlroy's interpretation, the breaking of the 'democratic process'. It is because there was some debate over the democratic process in the 1984-85 miners' strike that the question is raised as to whether the working Nottinghamshire miners were scabs at all."

Strikebreakers have also been known as knobsticks. The term appears derived from the word knob, in the sense of something that sticks out, and from the card-playing term nob, as someone who cheats.^[28]

• Molly Maguires
• "Blackleg Miner" (song)
• Mohawk Valley formula