Labour Negotiations set to resume on Wednesday between League, Players Association -NHL Update
The National Hockey League (NHL) and Players’ Association are set to resume negotiations on a new labour deal as both sides have decided to meet again for the second time in three days on Wednesday, according to latest reports.
A union spokesperson, according to NHL.com, has confirmed that the two sides continued to hold internal meetings on Tuesday, but will sit down formally on Wednesday.
"I can confirm that we will be meeting [Wednesday] morning," Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told NHL.com. "I don't know about the substance and I have no expectations."
League Commissioner Gary Bettman and team owners have directed the Players’ Association to submit a final draft of what they think should be part of the next collective bargaining agreement and by the looks of it, the league is looking to maybe compromise
on their stance in order for a deal to come through.
There are still a number of issues which are hindering both sides from making any significant progress, including player contracts along with share in team revenue. Team owners want to cut out a significant amount from the players share, along with reducing
any future contracts to no more than five years in length.
It was on September 15, 2012, that the previous collective bargaining agreement came to an end, which was signed post 2004-2005 NHL lockout which had the entire season off the map. Both stakeholders are looking towards ending the current work stoppage as
soon as possible along with getting a new deal done for a longer term instead of having to get back on the table in order to have a deal done as soon as possible.
“Right now, nothing is agreed on because we won’t agree to anything until we get a deal on core economics,” said one insider familiar with the NHL’s positions, according to TheStar.com. “But this is stuff where we said, ‘Okay, we’ll go there.”
It will interesting to see how things will work out on Wednesday. Updates should be expected in the next couple of days as Wednesday’s meeting is seen with high importance. Fans should expect something significant to come about by the end of this week.
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