St. Louis Blues become latest club to cut down on workforce due to Lockout -NHL Update
It is a well known fact that various jobs have been cut around the National Hockey League (NHL) as a lockout prevails and teams, due to there being no revenue certain for the upcoming season, have been forced to lay down a lot of their front office members.
St. Louis Blues became the latest franchise to do so as the St. Louis Dispatch reported that nearly 20 front office workers were shown the door due to a lack of funds to keep their salaries going. The remaining 75 or so people that work for the St. Louis
Blues in a full time position have also been reportedly served notices about them being let go in the near future or been forced to take a deep pay cut until the situation gets better.
According to the St. Louis Blues chief operating officer, most of those laid off at the moment may be brought back on board once a regular season is under way, but that is not guaranteed in any way by the NHL Western Conference franchise. For the Blues,
it was certainly a tough choice to make citing how tough the current economic situation is, but they seem to have no other option available which would allow them to keep those members on the squad.
The Blues are not the only ones making cuts and shortening their employees work weeks to just four-days a week and a lowered salary as the Ottawa Senators were one of the first clubs to have recently done so. Surprisingly, the NHL itself has done the same
in its head offices in Manhattan, New York, but instead of cutting any of their workforces, the league just shortened the working hours and will be paying accordingly.
With no clear date in mind when a new collective bargaining agreement may come into play and allow both stakeholders to get on with the regular season, this trend is seen to be one that will catch on with other teams as well. Not only since it will become
a financial requirement, but also one to undermine the Players’ Association’s attempt at not compromising on their stance and its consequences.
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