NFL Files Unfair-Labor Practices Complaint Against Union in Contract Talks
The National Football League filed an unfair labor practices complaint against its players’ union with the National Labor Relations Board, the latest dispute between the two sides involving negotiations on a collective bargaining agreement.
The league said the NFL Players Association isn’t bargaining in good faith, using delays to “run out the clock” on talks before disbanding the union and suing the league under antitrust law for colluding to restrict pay. The NFLPA said the league’s claim, filed yesterday, has “absolutely no merit.”
The NFL’s current labor deal expires March 3 and the union has said it expects the league to lock out players. The NFL has asked the NLRB -- a federal agency that enforces U.S. labor laws -- for clarification on the rules governing the union’s potential use of antitrust laws to block a lockout.
The NFL said the union’s threat to decertify is “a ploy and an unlawful subversion of the collective bargaining process, there being no evidence whatsoever of any (let alone widespread) dissatisfaction with the union by its members.”
Officials at the NFL, the U.S.’s most-watched television sport, said the NFLPA has sought to set up a court fight by delaying meetings, failing to respond to proposals in a timely manner and insisting on disclosure of financial information to which it has no right.
‘Fair, Long-Term Deal’
The players’ union says it’s not threatening a work stoppage.
“Players want a fair, new and long-term deal,” the union said in a statement sent by spokesman Carl Francis. “We have offered proposals and solutions on every issue the owners have raised.”
NFL owners voted in 2008 to opt out of the labor deal after this season, saying it didn’t account for costs such as those of building stadiums. Talks have included topics such as what share of revenue players should get, expanding the season to 18 games from 16, a rookie salary cap and health care.
Paul Haagen, who teaches contracts and sports law at Duke University School of Law, said the league’s complaint aims to clarify language governing how the union is certified. A footnote “seeks the board’s detailed views” about how “the union’s sham disclaimer” would affect how antitrust law applies to the dispute.
‘Tactical Whim’
“Your certification is not a tactical whim,” Haagen said in a telephone interview. “You can’t simply drop in and out of this. This is essentially a claim that the decertification would be tactical.”
Players decertified the union two years after the last NFL strike in 1987. The move triggered about 20 lawsuits, according to the union, including the one that helped create free agency in 1993. The union began seeking authorization for a decertification from players at the beginning of last season.
The NFL and NFLPA last met for a negotiating session on Feb. 9 in Washington and then canceled a meeting scheduled for the next day. Commissioner Roger Goodell has scheduled a league meeting for March 3 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Kuriloff in New York at akuriloff@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net.
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