'Scabby the Rat' Was Spotted Outside NEA Headquarters
An iconic symbol of union protests was outside the headquarters of the nation's largest union, the National Education Association, to protest a weeks-long lockout of union staff.
Peter List, Editor | August 12, 2024
A weeks-long lockout of union staff by the nation’s largest union, the National Education Association (NEA), drew an inflatable symbol of union protests to the front of the union’s headquarters on Monday, according to posts on X (formerly Twitter) by locked out union staff.
In early July, the NEA locked out its unionized staff after a brief strike, which occurred during the NEA’s convention in Philadelphia. The strike caused President Biden to cancel his scheduled appearance during the convention, as well as angered many of the attendees who refused to cross the staff union’s picket line.
“To best protect the interests of our members, the Association, and our staff, we have made the difficult decision to institute a protective lockout,” an NEA spokesperson reportedly stated at the time.
Since then, locked-out union staff has protested outside of union headquarters on a regular basis.
On Monday, the union staffers had a well-known union symbol, a giant inflatable rat outside the NEA’s headquarters.
Scabby the Rat’s Disputed Origins.
The rat, known as ‘Scabby the Rat,’ has been used for decades by union protestors during labor disputes. However, who came up with the idea is in dispute.
“The story of the rat dates back to the late 1980s with a guy named Jim Sweeney,” reported NPR a few years ago.
Sweeney was an organizer with the International Union of Operating Engineers, who had been hired to come up with new tactics to use on companies using non-union labor.
“That made him think of an old union insult, the rat contractor who abuses the workers,” NPR stated. “This inspired Sweeney to get some rat suits made.”
The rat suits smelled so bad, Sweeney was compelled to come up with a rat that had no one inside of it. And hence, Scabby the inflatable rat was born.
According to an old article in Mental Floss, however, it wasn’t the Operating Engineers’ Sweeney who came up with the inflatable rat. It was the bricklayers’ union.
Scabby was born in 1990, when the Chicago bricklayers union contacted Plainfield, Illinois-based Big Sky Balloons and Searchlights. The bricklayers were looking for something big and nasty to get their point across at a protest. When Big Sky owner Mike O'Connor showed them his sketch, their criticism was succinct: "It's not mean enough."
A Vice link on Big Sky Balloons & Searchlights website also points to the Bricklayers’ origin story.
Ironically, the maker of Scabby the Rat, Big Sky Balloons & Searchlights, was itself a non-union company for many years.
