Players Association ready to meet as long as No Strings Attached -NHL Lockout Update
The National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) is ready to meet the league again to continue the negotiation process, with the condition of not having any strings attached.
By that, the labour union is putting their time into continuing talks on a new collective bargaining agreement, but will not do so until the league comes in ready to compromise on some issues. It has been over a week since the NHL made its 50-50 offer along
with having rejected three of the Players’ Association’s alternative offers.
"They have made it clear to us that they have very little interest in the proposal we made last Tuesday," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in an email Tuesday night to ESPN.com. "They also told us they have no intention of making a new proposal. I'm
not sure what we would be meeting about."
The upcoming Thursday was termed to be the deadline for both sides to reach an agreement and still go through with a full 82-game regular season with November closing in, but it seems like that is far from being possible as the two stakeholders still have
a lot to reach a consensus on.
"We are willing to meet and discuss that and anything else without pre-conditions and have been since last week," NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr told ESPN.com in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. "We're more than happy to do that, but one side does
not get to define the agenda."
For the league, their 50-50 offer was one that the players could “take it or leave it” and it is quite clear now that they have decided to do that latter. It is hard seeing a bargaining agreement coming into force before the Thursday deadline, unless a miracle
does happen, but even that seems to be extremely rare since they even have not decided a final meeting date as of yet.
A date should be finalised by the league and Players’ Association in the next 24-48 hours, but nothing should be expected to be confirmed in that time period as another ice cold deadlock persists between the two.
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