Commissioner Gary Bettman Advises 2-week Moratorium in Labour Negotiations -NHL Lockout Update
The National Hockey League (NHL) and Players’ Association are going through another deadlock in negotiations as both sides have failed to reach a mutual consensus on any of the key issues that have forced the work stoppage over two months ago.
In latest reports, it has been termed that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, is suggesting that both sides take a two-week long moratorium from labour talks and consider their positions before getting back into negotiations. The end of this week is seen to
be crucial in a sense that another series of cancellations could be carried out with as there are less than 15 days to go before December.
The labour union, on the other hand, is overly optimistic according to deputy NHL commissioner, Bill Daly, since he sees both sides as still very far apart in the negotiations over a new labour deal.
"I find it incredible that the Union is suggesting that we are somehow 'close' to a deal," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in an email to ESPN. "They have utterly refused to negotiate for months. They have made essentially one proposal -- five times.
They continue to request a 'guaranteed' Players Share as part of the next agreement and we repeatedly tell them maybe they should get a reality check. And in the mean time, maybe they can make their position clear to us on 50-50, on the make-whole and on Player
Contracting issues."
Replying back to the team owners, special counsel to the NHLPA, Steve Fehr believes that the players have compromised their position in favour of the league too much and cannot sacrifice any more. Team owners will now have to make some changes in their proposals
for the labour union to reconsider their position, otherwise a deal might not come around till later on next year.
Experts are fearing that if both stakeholders fail to find mutual ground in the next couple of weeks, the next cancellation that fans may see is the entire 2012-2013 regular season, and that still would not have any guarantee that a deal will come about
after that.
Tags: