Scabby recovering from scab shanking
Family sources report on the afternoon of July 11, 2013, that Scabby the Rat -- long a friend of the working man, women, and child -- is recovering from a desperate shanking by a scab outside a recent Chicago union event. Initial reports were that in addition to shanking Scabby on Monday July 8, 2013 in downtown Chicago, the scab, identified as George Koukos, had run Scabby over with a car. Originally charged with a misdemeanor, Koukos was subsequently charged with a felony and is currently being held on $100,000 bond.
Mr. Scabby greeting citizens in front of the June 24, 2013 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. Substance photo by Kristine Mayle.Recently prior to the Scabby Shanking, Scabby made his fun-filled appearance in front of 125 S. Clark St. while upstairs in the building the infamous "Scab Seven and their Sycophants" were conducting their monthly union busting moves to privatize the nation's third largest school system.
Some readers have inquired about Scabby's sex. "Is this Joe Union or the famous Union Maid of the Pete Seeger song?" asked one who asked to remain anonymous because she works in the office of CPS Scab-In-Chief Barbara Byrd Bennett. A Substance inquiry has established that color is the determinate of Scabby's gender, and that no gender bias has every interfered with Scabby's doing her -- or his -- duty. "The purple Scabby is the guy," reported one source. "The gold Scabby is Ms. Scabby."
The assailant.Plans are being made to establish a special fund to proliferate Scabby's kin so that future confrontations can be avoided.
DNAinfo Chicago reported that Scabby shanking:
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130711/loop/man-stabs-teamsters-giant-inflatable-rat-used-union-protests-police
Mr. Scabby provided oversight to the picket lines in support of striking janitors at 161 W. Kinzie in Chicago after a new owner of the building tried to create a "union free environment." Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — Scabby the Rat is a mainstay of union protests in Chicago, a giant inflatable rat meant to shame companies who use nonunion workers.
Scabby, however, met his match this weekend when an angry worker stabbed it with a box cutter, deflating it before driving over it with his car, prosecutors said. The worker trying to get past the rat during a Downtown dispute with a Teamsters organizer.
The Scabby slashing hit George Koukos hard, though. Police charged the 43-year-old with a felony and locked him up.
It happened, prosecutors allege, as Teamster Union demonstrators gathered outside 20 S. Clark Street on Sunday.
Koukos tried to leave work, but got into it with a Local 705 organizer about whether he was or was not a union member.
Koukos tried to leave, but the giant rat was blocking his exit, according to court records. When the union organizer refused to move the rat, Koukos pulled out a box cutter and stuck it into the union protest prop.
The air rushed out as Koukos got into his vehicle and ran over the deflated rat, according to court records.
According to the Inflatable Rat's Facebook page, it stands "about 8 feet tall, is grey and fed up!"
The rats pop up sporadically around the city when the union demonstrators wants to draw public attention to non-union employers and contractors.
Historically, the Teamsters Union, which represents a range of blue collar workers and professionals, has a reputation for intimidation, even violence.
Three months before the fateful Chicago Teachers Union runoff election, Ms. Scabby was doing her duty on Irving Park Road in Chicago when the builders of a new rehab center tried to use non-union bricklayers. Ms. Scabby told a Substance reporter that she liked working for the building trades workers at their outdoor sites. Substance photo by Sam Schmidt.But on Sunday, instead of taking matters into their own hands, the union organizers called police. The judge setting Koukos' bond took note.
"Teamsters have refined themselves, haven't they," Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. said during a bond hearing Wednesday.
Koukos was originally charged with a misdemeanor. But after the state's attorney's office dropped those charges this week, Koukos was arrested again as he left a courtroom at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse to face felony charges.
Koukos is now charged with criminal damage to property and aggravated assault. Bourgeois ordered him held on $100,000 bond Wednesday.
By: Brian Farrell
Is Scabby a union label Rat?
The question still remains though: Is 'Scabby The Rat' Union Made? I'm not sure if it's yes or no, but maybe we should ask http://www.bigskyballoons.com/ratpack.html the Home of the first Scabby The Rat.