"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with which he made a scab."A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumour of rotten principles."When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there is a pool of water to drown his carcass in, or a rope long enough to hang his body with. Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab. For betraying his master, he had character enough to hang himself. A scab has not."Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver. Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of a commission in the British army. The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife, his children and his fellow men for an unfulfilled promise from his employer."Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country; a scab is a traitor to his God, his country, his family and his class."That's what Jack London had to say back in 1905. Almost a century has gone by now, and those words, those comments and those observations are as relevant as they ever could be. The greatest single impediment to fair collective bargaining is scab labour. The largest single source of injuries on a picket line is scab labour.Here in Ontario we had a brief period of time after 1990 where the New Democrats were in power and scabs were outlawed, like they are in some other jurisdictions in this country. The absence of labour unrest during that time when anti-scab legislation was in effect was remarkable. When there were strikes, they were shorter-or, even worse, lockouts. I believe sincerely, the New Democrats believe sincerely and working women and men believe sincerely that scabs are an abomination.No worker ever joins the picket line willingly. Let's make that very, very clear, because when you're on a picket line, you're out there day in, day out. If it's wintertime, when winter's approaching, you're out there in the coldest of winter days and in the slush and the snow where you never get warm and your feet never get dry.Collective bargaining takes place at the bargaining table. To allow corporate bosses to circumvent, to avoid, collective bargaining at the table by importing scabs is once again an outrage. I believe, New Democrats believe, that as long as scabs are allowed in the province of Ontario, strikes will be longer and lockouts will be longer.Why, for the life of me, would anyone want to be a scab? Well, in the type of economy that we've developed, where there are more and more unemployed and people are earning lower and lower wages, sometimes family heads, women or men, feel compelled to take any job at any price. But they're very short-sighted, because the effect of scabbing, especially now, when the theme in labour relations by the corporate world is to end defined benefits-pension plans-and when the agenda of the corporate world is to reduce wages and when the agenda is to reduce workforces-scabs simply join with that agenda. They endorse it and they support it and they advocate for it and they make that agenda possible.
Hampton, Howard
Prue, Michael
Cansfield, Donna
Dhillon, Vic
Fonseca, Peter
Mangat, Amrit
Moridi, Reza
Ruprecht, Tony
Sousa, Charles
