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Scaffolders named in Unifor’s controversial Meet the Scabs video have filed a defamation lawsuit against what they call a “malicious” tactic in the Co-op refinery dispute.

But the union’s national president fired back and promised another video.

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The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America Local 1985 and six of its members filed a statement of claim against Unifor this week in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.

The six members were featured in a video Unifor posted on social media twice in January, depicting what it alleged were “scabs at co-op refinery.”

But the carpenters union and the six named members call that “untrue and defamatory information.”

A statement of claim launches a civil action and contains allegations not yet proven in court.

Scab is a pejorative term used by the labour movement to shame replacement workers. The lawsuit contends the scaffolders are not scabs because they were not hired to do the work of locked-out Unifor members. They work for a contractor, Brock Canada Industrial Ltd., under a separate collective agreement.