However, I was never a fan of the term simply because it is a derogatory term, and often the people taking the jobs the strikers have vacated are rather desperate for any money they can earn, thanks to a whole different set of outrageous injustices than the strikers are dealing with, and the whole thing smacks of the “divide and conquer” strategy the privileged use to pit less privileged groups against each other.

In other words, I’m not sure this is a word that SHOULD be replaced at all.
Jennifer Kesler´s last blog ..Links of Great Interest 11/06/09

Same here – I’m a trade union activist in the UK, and I’m very familiar with “scab” as synonymous with someone who crosses a picket line/labour brought in to break a strike. I’ll be watching this entry with interest, because I can’t think of anything which might substitute but which has the force of scab.

Just to clarify, the “scab” isnt the strike itself. The “scab” is someone (a worker) who allows themselves to be used by the company to cover up the “wound” of unfair wages, shitty (if any) benefits, hour cuts, etc etc by stepping in and doing the job of striking workers. The issues are definitely overlapping, and complex. Shit is virtually never cut and dry, and is usually laced pretty intensely with racism.

All of which isn’t to say that the ableist connotations don’t apply. Clearly they do. A word doesn’t suddenly lose the connotations just because someone is unaware of them.

As far as scab used in the borrowing money context: do you think this has the same sort of ableist connotations? Possibly class connotations as well as ableist ones; someone who needs to borrow (or scab) money is of a lower social class, and thus more likely to have infected sores etc. So, same connotations really, just used in a different context.
(Sorry if I’m rambly, I’m a little short on spoons right now).
PharaohKatt´s last blog ..Positive Experiences with Disability Activism

But…one of the reasons that “scab” carries such a strong message is because it is ableist, and I’d like to find a forceful alternative which adequately describes these kinds of people which does not add to the marginalization of people with disabilities. I don’t see how using language which hurts me and people like me to insult a group of people I find offensive is at all productive.

Much as “bitch” carries a very strong and loaded context, which is why some people prefer to see “woman” to “bitch” because “bitch” is a word which has been used to marginalize and control women.