strikebreaker
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of strikebreaker
Explanation
When workers go on strike, anyone who passes their picket lines to go to work is known as a strikebreaker. Most strikebreakers are hired after the strike begins. Strikes usually start when employees believe their official complaints haven't been adequately addressed by their employer. When a whole group of workers refuses to work, they hold a kind of collective power. Strikebreakers are those people who agree to do the work despite the strike — and for that reason, they're not popular with striking workers, who also refer to them as "scabs." In many countries (though not the U.S.), it's illegal to hire strikebreakers during the bargaining process.
Vocabulary lists containing strikebreaker
Chapter 20: The Industrial Age
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Chapter 12: Struggle for Reform, Lessons 1–3
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Fannie Never Flinched
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A notorious strikebreaker noted for paying his workers abysmally low wages, the complicated robber baron also publicly supported progressive tax laws, including estate taxes.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 6, 2023
When he worked in the Johnson White House, Mr. Watson lobbied in favor of certain pro-labor positions, despite being viewed by some as a strikebreaker in his earlier life.
From Washington Post • Nov. 28, 2017
Logan Marshall-Green of “Quarry” plays the strikebreaker hired to discourage an insurrection by any means necessary.
From Washington Post • Nov. 6, 2017
Cornelia Bryce Pinchot, the Pennsylvania Governor's lady who thought of General Johnson as a Wall Street strikebreaker, crowed: "I told you so."
From Time Magazine Archive
This witness had acted as a strikebreaker up until the time he was subpoenaed.
From The Everett massacre A history of the class struggle in the lumber industry by Smith, Walker C.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
