Player Discipline grips negotiations between NHL, NHLPA on new labour deal
While it may not seem like much time has passed since the National Hockey League (NHL) and Players’ Association kicked off talks with each other over a new labour deal with the current collective bargaining agreement coming to an end in September, the NHLPA
is set to put forth a proposition of its own.
Seeing how the NHLPA has kicked their part of the talks on a new labour deal into fifth gear by readying up for a counterproposal to the NHL’s initial proposition, which by many circles around the league was termed to be either an icebreaker or definite
deal.
If the first proposition by the NHL is something they are not looking to budge from, another lockout could be looming in the sidelines while the Players’ Association is still gathering up the facts and figures to put forth an offer of its own.
NHLPA executive director, Donald Fehr, termed ‘player discipline’ to be talks of the table during their first meeting of the week on Tuesday, July 24, 2012.
"The principal topic was issues relating to discipline and there was a good exchange of views on all kinds of areas," Fehr said. "I think, like a lot of subjects, this is one that will come up in future negotiating sessions. I'm not going to get into the
specifics of what was talked about or anything like that at this stage. It wouldn't be productive for the process."
Not much information was leaked by the head of the Players’ Association but one thing is for sure and that is the labour union is starting to show some aggression now following a month of calm and cool dealing.
"It's no secret that [player discipline] is an issue which has sparked a lot of discussion among players and the way we framed it is we want to discuss these issues with the owners and we'll see what comes out of that," Fehr added. "I really don't want to
go beyond that at this point."
10 players accompanied Donald Fehr to the meetings in Toronto. They have two more days scheduled for this week, Wednesday and Thursday.
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