navvy

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

navvy
    n 1: a laborer who is obliged to do menial work [syn: {drudge},
         {peon}, {navvy}, {galley slave}]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Navvy \Nav"vy\, n.; pl. {Navies}. [Abbreviated fr. navigator.]
   Originally, a laborer on canals for internal navigation;
   hence, a laborer on other public works, as in building
   railroads, embankments, etc. [Eng.]
   [1913 Webster]

from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

51 Moby Thesaurus words for "navvy":
      blue-collar worker, breadwinner, casual, casual laborer,
      common laborer, day laborer, digger, dredge, dredger, driller,
      employee, excavator, factory worker, flunky, free lance,
      free-lancer, full-time worker, groundhog, hand, industrial worker,
      jobber, jobholder, laborer, laboring man, menial, migrant, miner,
      moiler, office temporary, proletarian, roustabout, salaried worker,
      sandhog, sapper, self-employed person, servant, steam shovel,
      stiff, temporary, toiler, tunneler, wage earner, wage slave,
      wageworker, worker, workgirl, workhand, working girl, workingman,
      workingwoman, workman