Hockey legend Bobby Orr terms players to be on right side in negotiation process -NHL Update
The National Hockey League (NHL) Players’ Association could not have received better support at a better time as hockey great and former Boston Bruins player, Bobby Orr, termed the labour union to be on the right side and regarded the actions so far by the league, as uncalled for.
One of the things that irked him the most was NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman’s announcement to go into a lockout if a new deadline was not reached by the time the current one was set to expire, despite a clause being present as to the season going on if both sides give mutual consent.
"If we go back to the last collective bargaining agreement, the talk after that was, 'Gee, the players really got beat on this one,'" Orr was saying on Friday, August 10, 2012.
Orr, who is at the moment running his own talent agency and is working as a player agent himself, knows what the performers experience firsthand.
"So all of the sudden the owners have come back -- I know they're negotiating, they're posturing and so on, but what they put out there, there's no way the players can accept something like that," Orr told CBC News in Moncton, New Brunswick, where he's attending the Chevrolet Safe and Fun Hockey Festival.
Negotiations between the union and league management and owners has lasted for over a month now. Both sides are expected to continue negotiations this week, but a date has not been set as of yet. Instead of their usual three days a week, the union and league have kicked it up a notch by lasting longer last time around.
When issues of player benefits, punishment for fouls along with a majority of the things that had to do specifically with players came up during meetings, the debate got intense and heated without reaching any mutual conclusion.
According to experts, a lockout can never be really ruled out as it is always looming above head when negotiations are going on, but hopefully, when the September 15 deadline is reached, both sides will have made visible progress in that regard.
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