After months of tense negotiations that seemed to go on with no progress, the NBA and its players have agreed on a contract. This lockout started on July 1,2011. The lockout stated that any contact between players and team staff would be prohibited. Players were stuck without practice facilities and draft picks were without support from the team. The dispute was mainly over the split of Basketball Related Income, or BMI. The players had a 57.3% share of the BRI under the previous agreement, but the owners wanted to lower it to 50%. The two sides went back and forth for multiple months, until
"Sanity prevailed". Both sides realized they were losing significant amounts of money and became more willing to compromise as time went on.
The National Basketball Player's Association was a labor union that represented all NBA players. In October, the NBPA decided to disband and convert themselves into a trade association. There are no signifcant differences between the two terms, however, workers are not forced to join trade associations. After the reorganization, the NBPA filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the NBA. This seemed to scare the NBA, and an agreement was reached soon after.
The question is, was the anti-trust lawsuit legal?
"Decertification is a weapon that the union has, and if it is upheld, then there is no grounds for a lockout, it becomes illegal. But if the NFL owners win the ruling, it makes decertifying a lot less attractive for the NBA players and gives owners an upper hand.”
Courts can determine whether the decertification is actually a legitimate one or simply a trick used by the players association. Labor agreements are always complicated, especially in businesses such as the NBA, where there are few jobs to compare to, and with the possibility of strike breakers being non-existant (unless fans want to watch the Waikiki Warriors). Just an example of good-old somewhat legal bargaining in the United Staes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I think that its just really interesting to hear something like basketball described with the same terms as those used to describe the collapse of the labor movement. I'm really used to associating this topic with the unions and labor movements we learned about in AP U.S. History.
This article made me mentally compare the basketball players to the GM workers in the Roger and Me video that we watched in class.
I feel that at the end it was the owners who have won. The fight, which was obviously over money, had a victorious champion the owners which are now getting more of it. The owners have claimed that they have lost millions of dollars last season and they state that all they wanted was a 50/50 split between the players and owners. Other reasons why I think the owners have won the lockout are that they have got their way on mid-level exceptions and luxury tax. However, the main victory came from the split of BRI. This does not mean that the players have not gained anything. They have won on small issues like minimum team salary and escrow.
I find the anti-lawsuit interesting because I never thought that could happen. I think that the lawsuit will be difficult for the NBPA to win. I agree with Simone, but having the basketball players compared to workers in GM is very hard to see because one actually earns millions while the other earned the average income.
I think that the antitrust lawsuit was legal. The NBA holds all the power over the players; during the lockout, players did not have any access to the facilities they were accustomed to.
With regard to the decertification, I think that it was a clever move on the players side but a trick nonetheless. With the NBA lockout, players themselves were losing millions, not to mention the paychecks of the workers at arenas and local establishments where teams are located. The move was necessary to get paychecks rolling again.
I agree with katherine, that the owners won the battle. The owners did get their 50/50 that they wanted but they are still getting more money then they had before and also what katherine said they also saved money on luxury tax. Players lost because they lost money out the deal as their percentage was reduce from 57% to lower percentage. Even thought the owners said they lost money they are still getting it back by raising there percentage they had before.
Honestly, I am just really happy that the lockout is finally over and the NBA season can at last start. I can finally watch some basketball!
Post a Comment