NFL files unfair labor practice charge against players' union

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Washington Post

By Mark Maske

The NFL filed a charge of an unfair labor practice against the players' union Monday with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the union of failing to bargain in good faith while instead making preparations for the players to decertify the union and file an antitrust lawsuit against the league's franchise owners.

"The Union's strategy amounts to an unlawful anticipatory refusal to bargain," the league wrote in its written charge to the NLRB.

The league is seeking an order for the union to bargain in good faith. If the league is successful, that potentially would complicate or perhaps eliminate any attempt by the players to decertify the union during this set of labor negotiations and file antitrust litigation against the owners.

The league maintains in its charge with the NLRB that the union has not engaged in serious bargaining so far, calling the players' plan to potentially decertify the union "a ploy and an unlawful subversion of the collective bargaining process."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/14/AR2011021405647.html

---

FULL story at link.

[Drale]

1. So damn greedy

why should the 32 owners (I know technically there are more because of minor owners and such but 32 for arguments sake) get a bigger stake of the profits than the 1,696 who actually do the work?

[Peregrine]

5. Isn't that it usually works

Owners get a bigger cut than their workers.

The NFLPA made a mistake not grabbing Donald Fehr when he came available (instead NHLPA grabbed him).

[wilt the stilt]

2. I trust the owners

because they are good decent men with the community as on the top of their mind. Look they just love to take money from taxpayers to build stadiums. This is being their benevolent best. As a matter of fact they share with the public their profits. Such good people. Those dirty players who become brain damaged and crippled are the leeches.

[Dappleganger]

3. Good one!

:evilgrin:

[nyy1998]

4. Wow, the irony here is incredibly rich

I actually read up on the Union's proposal, and it's actually very strong and very good for the game. It does include a rookie scale(it seems to be common sense that someone that's never played in the NFL should earn more then a veteran player) and a slight rollback in total revenues(from 60% to 50%) but with the saving in the rookie contracts, the union did allow for several more veteran bonuses to be built in.


So players that have actually done something will earn more then rookies(who get $50 million contracts based on hype), and if you play well, you'll be rewarded. So the owners get to save money, the veteran players who actually played in the league will get something. But the owners apparently didn't think 50% was good enough(they want 40%, which is a totally arbitrary number) and are still pushing for 18 games with the only concession being for slighly bigger rosters(from 51 players to 57 players).

The NFLPA is actually trying to save the game, the NFL owners are just trying to save their pocketbooks.



Edited for spelling errors(and I probably didn't catch all spelling mistakes, so my apologies)