scab
n. countablen. a person who works at a job that others have stopped working at to go on strike. People often use this word to describe someone who is helping a company by breaking a strike.
n. a person who performs work during a strike, typically to replace striking workers. Often carries a derogatory or pejorative tone in political and labor contexts.
The workers refused to let a scab enter the factory.
During the long railway strike, several scabs were hired to keep the freight trains moving on schedule.
The union's primary goal was to prevent the hiring of scabs, as their presence was seen as a direct threat to the collective bargaining power of the striking members.
From Middle English scabb, scabbe (also as shabbe, schabbe > English shab), from Old English sċeabb and Old Norse skabb, both from Proto-Germanic skabbaz (“scab, scabies”), from Proto-Indo-European skabʰ- (“to cut, split, carve, shape”). Doublet of shab. Cognate with German Schabe (“scabies”), Danish skab (“scab, scabies”), Swedish skabb (“scab, scabies”), Latin scabies (“scab, itch, mange”). Related also to Old English scafan (“to scrape, shave”), Latin scabere (“to scratch”), English shabby.