The first known inflatable rat was used by the
International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 in
Plainfield, Illinois in 1989, according to photos from the
Local 150 Engineer in November 1989, which also launched a "Name the Rat" contest. In January 1990, it announced that "Scabby" was the winning submission, in reference to the slang "scab" for
strikebreakers and non-striking workers, coming from Local 150 member Lou Mahieu. An alternative origin story credits the
International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers who credit Ken Lambert with the design in 1990 or 1991, a member of the Chicago District Council, and claim to still have the original model in their Chicago office storage. The inflatable rats all originated from one American manufacturer, a company called Big Sky, who produced
hot air balloons and standalone
inflatables. It was commissioned by Lambert and designed by one of the co-owners, who Lambert asked to make the design to be "'meaner looking,' with big claws and 'festering nipples,'" with "menacing" fingers and whiskers and "more scabrous" belly. In part as a result of increasing business from unions, Big Sky’s sales doubled between 1990 and 1991, and developed other "union inflatables," such as a cockroach, a "Corporate
Fat Cat", a "Greedy Pig". It was estimated that Big Sky at one point sold a half-dozen Scabbies per month at a price of up to $10,000 each. In 2011 National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in
Sheet Metal Workers Local 15, 356 NLRB No. 162 (2011) ruled that the inflatable rat did not constitute a signal picket but instead constituted
symbolic speech, which is not subject to
secondary boycott rules. This holding allows the union not only to place the inflatable rats at neutral entrances but also to place them at locations where the picketed company is absent. In 2017, NLRB general counsel
Peter B. Robb filed court motions seeking to change the previous policy, arguing that the presence of the inflatable rat was "confrontational, threatening, and coercive." Robb's complaint was set aside by a 3–1 vote of the NLRB on July 21, 2021. The inflatable rat appeared in the UK for the first time in 2012 and again at the
2013 Grangemouth Oil Refinery dispute. It is used by unions also in
Australia,
Canada and
Israel. ==Appearance==