Scab Buster Button, 1987. Courtesy of the Maine Paper and Heritage Museum.
Scab Buster Button, 1987. Courtesy of the Maine Paper and Heritage Museum.
This protest button is playing on Ghost Busters, a popular movie in the 1980s. It was worn by a supporter of the strike. A "scab" is a disrespectful name for a replacement worker.
When workers go on strike, they want to force their employers to negotiate with them. If replacement workers take their jobs, the strikers lose their power to negotiate with management.
Replacement workers are also laborers striving to feed their family. In 1987, jobs at International Paper were the best paying industrial jobs in Maine.