http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/sports/basketball/players-accuse-nba-of-failing-to-bargain-in-good-faith.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
The legal maneuvering in the N.B.A.’s labor battle began in earnest Tuesday, when the players union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing league officials of failing to negotiate in good faith.
The one-page complaint charges the N.B.A. with making “grossly
regressive contract demands,” of failing to provide the union with
critical financial data and with repeatedly threatening to lock out
players in the absence of a new collective bargaining agreement.
The N.B.A. immediately dismissed the complaint as having no merit and
asserted that it has complied with federal labor laws.
This is likely to be the first in a series of legal salvos as the N.B.A.
and the players association try to break a 16-month stalemate. The
current labor agreement, adopted in 2005, is set to expire June 30.
There is little hope on either side that a lockout can be avoided.
But the players’ complaint with the N.L.R.B. is, at least in part, an
attempt to prevent the league from locking them out in July, said Gabe
Feldman, the director of sports law at Tulane University, who called
this “a pre-emptive strike.”
He added, “I think the N.B.A. players are now looking for some tactic,
some strategy, to give them leverage at the bargaining table.”
The alternative would be for the union to decertify, as the N.F.L.
players union did in March. Decertification opens the door for the
players to sue the league on antitrust grounds, but it carries
substantial risks. The union has laid the groundwork to decertify in the
event of a lockout. But if the players win a favorable ruling from the
N.L.R.B., they might avoid that path. The objective in both strategies
is to force the league back to the negotiating table.
“I think we’re likely to see the players try all possible weapons here,
and this is just one weapon,” Feldman said of the N.L.R.B. complaint. “I
think this is just the beginning of the labor battle.”
The N.L.R.B. is known to move at a deliberate pace and, in Feldman’s
view, is unlikely to issue a ruling before the collective bargaining
agreement expires in six weeks.
“But this is at least another weapon the players have at their disposal,” he said.
N.B.A. officials claim the league is losing more than $300 million a
year. They are seeking an overhaul of the economic system, including a
38 percent rollback in player salaries — amounting to about $800
million. Owners also want a hard salary cap to replace the current
soft-cap system, and they want team payrolls reduced to $45 million,
from $58 million.
The players’ counterproposal would generally retain the current system,
but with an offer to reduce their 57 percent guarantee of league
revenues. Both parties consider the other’s proposal to be unworkable.
League officials recently presented a modified offer in which the
proposed cuts would be phased in over two years, rather than instituted
immediately. The union scoffed at the offer.
With no indication that either side will budge soon, the union filed its
complaint, contending the N.B.A. has violated the National Labor
Relations Act.
In the one-page complaint, the union accuses the N.B.A. of making
“harsh, inflexible and grossly regressive takeaway demands” without
offering “appropriate tradeoffs”; “engaging in classic
take-it-or-leave-it and surface bargaining” that is intended to provoke a
lockout and “coerce” players into accepting the league’s proposal;
failing to provide “relevant financial information”; “repeatedly
threatening” to lock out the players; and “making demands and threats
that are inherently destructive to the collective bargaining process.”
League officials are also accused of bypassing the union to deal directly with players.
The N.B.A. responded in a statement: “There is no merit to the charge
filed today by the players association with the National Labor Relations
Board, as we have complied — and will continue to comply — with all of
our obligations under the federal labor laws. It will not distract us
from our efforts to negotiate in good faith a new collective bargaining
agreement with the players association.”