Supplementary discipline dominates latest league, Players' Association talks -NHL Update
Both sides left financial details out of Wednesday’s meeting in continuing talks for a new collective bargaining agreement between the National Hockey League (NHL) and Players’ Association with supplementary discipline dominating the talks.
Obviously, there are still many differences that the two stakeholders have to conquer before any real negotiations start for a new deal as sources in the meeting termed it to have gotten tense at times when a topic arose on which both sides were unable to
agree on mutual terms to.
"At times there have been heated exchanges," special assistant to NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, Mathieu Schneider, said. "There's definitely strong opinions on both sides, especially when it comes to supplementary discipline, but I wouldn't describe
it as adversarial. Not at all."
Coming out of the meeting, the league’s deputy commissioner, Bill Daly, was happy at the fact that both sides of the talks were “lively” and had a lot to say on the topic.
"People had strongly-held views, and we heard some players in particular, how important this issue is to them. That didn't surprise anybody at our end of the table. Actually, I thought it was a good, lively discussion. I didn't feel tense at any point,"
Daly said.
Prior to Wednesday, the league and Players’ Association had agreed to the fact that a deal should be reached before the expiration of the current CBA, which was signed back in 2005 following a season long lockout. In order to avoid such a situation from
repeating again, both are willingly giving talks for a new labour deal full priority.
On those subjects which the NHLPA and league are having difficulty coming to a conclusion, the labour union was termed to have wanted an independent arbiter to come in and decide over the issues in a neutral manner. Since discipline ends up costing players
a lot of money in some situations, the union is looking to have it toned down a bit.
Donald Fehr was not present in Wednesday’s meeting, but is expected to make a return from Barcelona, Spain, on Thursday, as he was in Europe to discuss specific issues with some players and take them into confidence.
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