Login / RegisterStriking workers forced to yell "fuckwits" at scabs after B.C. court ruling restricts picket language
So the B.C. Court of Appeal handed down a ruling yesterday (June 1) that prohibited, among other things, workers on strike against Great Canadian Railtour Company Ltd. from pointing at SCABS--er, strikebreakers, um, sorry, replacement workers--and calling them what, in fact, they truly are: SCABS.
The decision of the three-member panel dismissed an application by Teamsters Local 31 to quash an earlier, now upheld, injunction against locked-out employees engaged in a long-term strike against Railtour.
That injunction prohibited, ridiculously, said striking workers from unlawfully pointing at and yelling at SCABS who have taken advantage of, along with Railtour, a Canada Labour Code provision that allows federally regulated companies to employ SCABS. This is not allowed under the B.C. Labour Relations Code.
The learned judges countered the union’s argument that yelling and pointing constitute protected speech by writing that this “ignores the context in which the yelling and pointing occurred and, in particular, what words were used”.
What “context” would that be? A situation in which locked-out workers with mortgages and children are thrown out of their workplace indefinitely and forced to watch while heartless mercenaries with formaldehyde coursing through their veins (SCABS) waltz in and take their jobs?
The strikers may have to modify their behavior now if they don’t want to take the very real chance that (this being B.C., after all) they may face being thrown in jail for several months for having the temerity to bruise the ears and sensibilities of some reptilian SCABs.
Here are a few epithets that could be hurled instead of SCAB: asshat, fuckwit, jerkoff, home wrecker, scum of the earth, pariah, dogshit…
Oh, the list is endless. And after all, if the company can use a federal loophole to employ "replacement workers", couldn't the strikers employ "replacement words"? Maybe a thesaurus will become standard picket-line issue, along with the placards, coffee cups, and oil-drum fires.
Just make sure not to point at the sensitive, job-stealing souls as you scream. Or maybe strikers could use sign language or hire some out-of-work mimes? Surely that isn’t covered in the most recent ruling?
But could those spoken words also be considered to violate the terms of the upheld injunction, the same as SCAB?
Possibly, but it would be illuminating to hear the judges justify outlawing every one of them, in turn, if convictions for violating the injunction were to be appealed.
But for those strikers unwilling to risk jail, perhaps they could just yell out: “Fuck you, dry, rough protective crusts that discharge from and form over a wound during healing!”
Maybe there should be a picket line outside the B.C. Court of Appeal.
Not that the judges are SCABS or anything. But they do seem to be partial to them.
Or maybe they just misheard during childhood and thought their mothers told them: “Never picket SCABS!”
The public views your actions, you know. There's a reason that union penetration has suffered in recent decades....and I suspect a big part of it is because of the way could-be future union members view such childish behavior.
members view such childish behavior"
Well, they're left with childish behavior because unions are no longer allowed to do what it is that they ought to do: form up militarily and attack anyone who attempts to breach the picket. Taking someone's job is an act of war.
"So join the union while you may,
Don't wait 'til your dying day
For that may not be far away,
You dirty blackleg miner."
Well...well...well...its seems the corporate courts are once again up to no good! A little history lesson is in order methinks!
Back in the late 60s or early 70s, the precise year escapes me now, the Theatre Projectionists went on strike and the theatre companies hired scabs to run the projectors, albeit to dramatically reduced audiences. The Projectionists and their supporters did what all good trade unionists do, they called the scabs 'Scabs'. The theatre owners in a pique of righteous indignation ran off and found their own toady who issued an injunction prohibiting speaking the word 'scab' to a scab.
People were outraged and thought the judge a loony and the decision outrageous. He and it was!
What to do?
Two lefty folk singers, Colby Peters and Dave Bostock, understanding that the language of injunctions is very specific and the prohibition can only apply to what is specifically written in the injunction, came to the very logical conclusion that 'speaking' is not the same as 'singing', and 'scabby' is definitely a different word from 'scab', and they sat down and wrote 'Are You A Scabby?' to the tune of 'Are You From Bevan', a great song about the 1912-14 Vancouver Island Coal Strike.
They sang 'Are You A Scabby?' in front of every struck theatre in town, over and over and over again. The Projectionists loved it. The people loved it. And the theatre owners hated it, but they were too embarrassed to go back to court to seek to expand their injunction to ban singing and prove themselves even more the A-holes they were.
My good friend Dave taught me and many others the song and I've been singing it for years, and people today, when they hear it, love it just as much as when its joyous sound echoed up and down the canyon of threatre row on Granville Street those many years ago.
Dave has since passed away, but I know he would be delighted if 'Are You A Scabby?' was resurrected in support of the Great Canadian Rail Tour Strikers. So...perhaps a video version, along with a message of support for the striking workers could be shot, put up on Youtube and watch it go viral?
Here then are the immortal words and chords to 'Are You A Scabby/'. Enjoy
ARE YOU A SCABBY?
To the tune of ‘Are You From Bevan’ – Words by Colby Peters and Dave Bostock
G
Hello stranger, how do you do,
G
I’ve got something to say to you,
D
You look surprised, that I recognized,
D D7
I know a scab by the look in their eyes,
G
We’ve been out walking on this picket line,
G
We all need a job, but you’re doing mine,
D
The boss he is laughing, the injunction is read,
If there was any justice, you’d all be dead.
G C
Chorus: Are you a scabby? I said a scabby.
G D
Do you lick the bottom of managements’ shoes,
G C
Are you a scabby? I said a scabby.
G D
Do you wear knee pads when the boss calls on you?
G
Do you wash the floor and scrub the toilet with your tongue?
C
And beg for more when all the dirty work is done?
G C
Are you a scabby? I said a scabby.
G D G
‘Cause the union’s gunning for you!
You’ve got the boss but we’ve got the might,
You’ve got the law, but we’ve got the right.
First we were locked out, some of us knocked out,
But you black legged scum you were only bought out.
Go back to work, get down on your knees.
The boss is coming, he’s hard to please.
You fawn and caress him, you bow and you stoop,
You’re enough, by God, to make a maggot puke.
Chorus:
If they can't blame, shame and intimidate, what are they left with? Throwing feces on opponents' roofs?
Bloody shameful.
Its a damn shame that standing up and fighting for better working conditions against a repugnant employer like Rocky Mountaineer has become a source of ridicule and derision for so many people. To people like Taxpayers R Us, and the other ignorant right wingers who have posted on here, I say this. When you're out at the Canada Day picnics enjoying your long weekend, thank a union person for it. The next time you're rotting on a beach in Mexico, enjoying your vacation time, thank a union person for it. The next time you get a pay increase in a non union work environment, thank a union person for it, because the employer is only paying you more to keep the union out. Don't be so ignorant or arrogant. Or better yet, go down to the Rocky Mountaineer picket line and say what you've said on here to those people's faces.
That includes scabs working to provide for their families aswell, right?
Whether or not you like the circumstances of how they got the temporary job.
Gentleman Jack- "Well, they're left with childish behavior because unions are no longer allowed to do what it is that they ought to do: form up militarily and attack anyone who attempts to breach the picket. Taking someone's job is an act of war"
They aren't taking their jobs. Think of it as holding on to them for a little bit, while the picketers decide whether or not they really want the job that badly.
I mean they were the ones who walked out on it first weren't they?
You guys are so bent on harassing scabs when you should be focused on fighting the employer. Those guys are doing what comes natural to humans. Seeing an oppurtunity to work and taking it.
It's not wrong. Maybe not the nicest thing to do but it's certainly no reason to freak out and harass them.
Go after the employer not the workers.
This article is foolishness in itself to begin with.
"Why can't we harass people we're mad at?"
This isn't grade school, if someone does something you don't like you don't point and call names, throw stuff and have fits.
You act like mature responsible (albeit angry adults) and start going after the instigator.
You as the employee want something and want the community to support your plight.
Then behave responsibly and in a civil manner.
Yes, even to those who you feel are taking advantage of your situation.
Failure to do so will only come back and bite you in the ass.
Just grow up.
I would feel dirty showing up to the firehall and taking someguy's station who's outside locked out. The longer I work there the longer he doesn't have a job. Eventually the corporation will screw me too and I'll be the one outside with the pickets watching even lower wage scabs take my temporary job.
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