Alberta Labour Board rules against Players' Association appeal against Lockout -NHL Update
Unfortunately for the National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA), their second appeal, this time in the Canadian province of Alberta, was rejected by the Alberta Labour Board on Wednesday, October 10, 2012, after their first was denied by the Quebec
Labour Board.
This time, the appeal went sent by the players from the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames franchise in order to have the Alberta Labour Board declare the NHL’s lockout of its players unlawful in the province and allow them to continue using team facilities
along with continue getting salaries.
"We dismiss the NHLPA’s application in its entirety," the ALRB decision concluded, according to NHL.com.
Without waiting, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly came out to announce that the league was pleased with the decision and termed it to prove that their standing on the issue is fair and legit.
"We are pleased with the Alberta Labour Board’s ruling today that the lockout of Players is effective on a League-wide basis, including in Alberta, and we are extremely appreciative of the decisive manner in which the matter was handled," Daly said in a
statement. "We are hopeful that this ruling will enable both the League and the NHL Players’ Association to focus all of our efforts and energies on negotiating a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in order to get our game and our Players back on the ice."
The union also came out to respond to the decision and along with terming it to be a disappointment, the union stated that they would be looking at any other options that they may be able to use since they believe that the league is not only locking out
the players but snatching the rights of the fans to continue following their favourite sport.
One of the main reasons of the labour board ruling termed by the body was that since they could not fully implement it throughout the NHL, doing so just for the Flames and Oilers franchises would hold to be impractical. They also added that the two stakeholders
should be able to work out their issues together and come to a solution themselves instead of turning to other bodies.
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