No progress on NFL labour dispute, meetings with NFLPA continue but deal unlikely
The ninth day of mediated negotiations between the National Football League (NFL) and the Players Association (NFLPA) don’t appear to have to gone too well. The two sides met for close to four hours on Wednesday. The NFL’s labour committee then met with
NFL owners for a further three hours.
Present during that meeting was Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay. He confirmed that owners had not voted on a lockout during the meeting. He said, “I think it was more a thorough update and a chance to ask questions. But we didn't break the room with a
lockout vote or anything like that.”
That shouldn’t be taken as a good sign because NFL owners don’t need to hold a vote to lockout players at this point. The NFL labour committee has been authorised to make that decision on behalf of the owners. Irsay didn’t reveal any details about the negotiations
taking place with the Players Association at the offices of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). Agency Director George Cohen asked the negotiating parties to keep quiet about the dispute until it is resolved.
Both sides have agreed to Cohen’s request and are taking their vows of silence pretty seriously. “We're under such a tight restriction, it almost covers body language,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said on Wednesday.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, along with members of the labour committee went back to FMCS headquarters later on Wednesday. No one knows what for or what happened during the meeting. The league and the Players Association have agreed to a final day of
negotiations on Thursday; the day the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) expires.
The Negotiations aren’t likely to continue for very long. Unless miraculous progress is made within the early hours of negotiations on Thursday, the Players Association will pre-emptively decertify as a union, before the labour agreement expires and owners
are able to lock them out. If the union doesn’t go through with decertification by 5 pm on Thursday, they will not be able to decertify for another six months.
How much progress can be made on Thursday is anyone’s guess. It’s reasonable to assume though, that there will be no deal before the CBA expires. Things are expected to get only more complicated once the deal expires.
The NFLPA is likely going to challenge an owner imposed lockout in courts; something it cannot do without decertification. The League in turn is going to challenge decertification of the union in the National Labour Relations Board (NLRB). Having already
predicted that the union would decertify, the NFL filed a complaint with the NLRB accusing the players union of indulging in surface bargaining, and using the threat of decertification as a tool in the labour dispute.
While the two sides slug it out in the courts, negotiations between owners and players could still continue behind the scenes. In fact they must continue if a deal is to be done before the 2011 season is disrupted or if games are lost due to the lockout.
Tags: