The huge inflatable rat catches your eye first, and then the union picket line does.
Scabby the Rat has returned to Greater Cleveland.
This time it is part of the picket line at Valley Ford Truck in Valley View. Auto and truck technicians there have been on strike since Dec. 18.
People associate the rat with a strike. It’s a visual symbolization that you have something going on.
Robert Towslee, business representative for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Local 1363
The unmistakable gray rat, with buck teeth and front paws poised as if ready to pounce, is a fixture on union picket lines throughout the United States. Scab has long been union slang for a strikebreaker. (The inflatable rat can show up at any union demonstration. Most of the time, “scabs” aren’t germane to the labor issue being protested.) Rat in the vernacular can mean scoundrel or a host of other negatives. If Scabby shows up in front of a place of employment, it’s a sign of trouble.
“People associate the rat with a strike,” said Robert Towslee, business representative for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Local 1363. “It’s a visual symbolization that you have something going on.”
Scabby commonly comes in two sizes,one in the range of 20 feet high and the other about 12 feet high.
Most weekday mornings about 6:30 a.m., Local 1363 strikers begin forming the picket line and also inflating Scabby. Once attached to a generator, Scabby transforms from a deflated pile into a picket line legend. The local usually uses a big rat and a smaller one. Windy weather kept the big guy packed away for several days for fear it would topple, Towslee said. Big Scabby is poised to return this week, with the forecast predicting calmer weather.
Both Scabbys belong to IAM’s Eastern Territory. This means the inflatables can travel as far north as Maine, through Ohio and other nearby Great Lakes states and as far south as West Virginia. The inflatables arrived in Cleveland from New York in the back of an SUV, which is the way they usually travel the territory. Towslee is hoping the Scabbys won’t have a long stay in Cleveland. Local 1363 returns to the bargaining table this week in hopes of reaching a contract now stalled over issues relating to 401(k) retirement plans and the number of workweek hours.
Once a contract is reached and the picket line dissolved, the deflated Scabbys will be loaded into a vehicle headed to the next union demonstration that needs them.
Unions use inflatable rat and Corporate Fat Cat
Laborers’ Local 860 owns a large Scabby as well as a Corporate Fat Cat inflatable, which chomps on a cigar. Both have gotten plenty of use in the last few years. This includes in front of the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Justice Center, where the local, whose members include detention and probation officers, has been involved in a longstanding union dispute.
Scabby and Fat Cat sometimes show up in support of other unions. For example, they joined the demonstrations that Teamsters Local 507 snowplow drivers held before ratifying a contract a year ago.
Scabby and Fat Cat are invaluable at demonstrations, said Colin Sikon, a Local 860 organizer and business agent. He said their expansive tummies, especially on the 20-foot versions, serve as billboards. They’re large enough for unions to affix messages to them explaining the purpose of the demonstration.
“It is a very, very effective tool because it is an attention getter,” Sikon said. “People will drive by, stop and ask, ‘Hey, what is this all about? We try, as briefly as possible, to give them the synopsis of the unfair labor [practices] going on and try to appeal to the community about how this affects them.”
Sikon believes residents in general should care about union issues, especially economic ones. For example, he said Local 860, whose members include those in highway and utilities construction, continues to fight against companies they believe aren’t paying competitive wages.
These include employers Sikon said win public contracts by “undercutting” companies that pay competitive wages. He said such companies are often based out of town and hire out-of-town workers for less than what their counterparts in Cleveland make.
“They’re a plague on our community,” he said. “It’s basically an extrication of wealth from a community because these projects are funded by our tax dollars. Historically, rats have played a role in plagues on civilization.”
Scabby’s Midwestern roots
Though Scabby can be seen at union actions in any American city – and even abroad – its roots are in the Midwest. The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 in Chicago came up with the Scabby forerunner in 1986 to protest a non-union contractor, according to the union’s website. Scabby didn’t start out as an inflatable, but, rather, as a drawing on picket signs.
Even during its debut, Scabby – then known as Mr. Rat – proved effective. Rats on picket signs drew onlookers, and “organizers took notice,” according to Local 150’s website.
The rodent’s next iteration was as a rat suit. There were drawbacks.
“With frequent use over long days in the hot summer months, the rat suit quickly took on a formidable aroma, and was often assigned to the newest organizers on staff,” Local 150’s website states.
An inflatable gorilla at a Chicago area car dealership gave a Local 150 official the idea for an inflatable Mr. Rat. A tradition was born. However, Scabby the Rat wouldn’t get its moniker until 1990. It was the winning entry in a naming contest.
In 2021, Scabby became the subject of a National Labor Relations Board ruling. Workers and employers are usually the focus of NLRB rulings, not inflatables. The decision said that Scabby can be displayed near an employer’s property, even if the employer is not the primary target of a labor dispute.
A “neutral” employer had challenged “an inflatable rat and banners” being set up near its entrance. This employer was not directly involved in a labor dispute but had a business association with the employer the union was targeting.
For many union members, Scabby’s being the subject of an NLRB ruling proved how powerful the inflatable had become. It is a type of power, Sikon says, his union tries not to misuse.
“We only use Scabby the Rat when we have to,” he said. “Diplomacy is always our first attempt. When the employer is obstinate and refuses to acknowledge or work with us, then we have to use him.”
