The NFL Labor Dispute was discussed at length on the May 16th Bob Long Sports Radio Show. On that day the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals granted the owners a permanent stay on the current NFL lockout until a collective bargaining agreement can be completed. This decision comes nearly a month after Judge Nelson ruled in favor of the players on April 25th, effectively ending the lockout. This decision was primed to give the players tremendous leverage in negotiations, and very well may have been the defining step towards a collective bargaining agreement, and football in the fall.
However, the NFL appealed this verdict to the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals, and the court later granted the owners a temporary stay until a full appeal was made. The appeal was granted to the NFL yesterday by the appellate court, ensuring that the lockout would continue until the new CBA could be completed. This decision returns the negotiations to a stalemate, and now gives leverage to owners in the labor discussions that they did not have 3 weeks ago. However, although the owners may have won the battle, the players, and more notably, the fans, lost ground in the labor war. The decision to grant the permanent stay on the lockout returns all discussions to stalemate as the players and owners return to court-mandated mediation on Tuesday. Owners now have no motive to give ground in negotiations, because they have the leverage allowed by the appellate court’s decision. The player’s still firmly stand their ground, as the victory by the owners does not necessarily compel the players to compromise any of their demands, it only entrenches both sides further to their original positions.
Consider the metaphor of a game of tug of war. When the owners signed the 2006 CBA, they gave up some leverage and received the short end of the deal. In other words, the owners got the short end of the rope. Then, when the owners had an opportunity to opt out of the deal at the end of the 2010-2011 season, they gained back the leverage they lost on the players with the previous deal, which created the stalemate that arose from the current labor dispute. The players then gained back the leverage in the tug of war in the courts with Judge Nelson’s ruling. The owners would have been forced to give up ground in the war if it were not for the appeals process, which reversed Judge Nelson’s ruling, and grounded the tug of war back to the original stalemate that it faced when the owners opted out of the previous CBA and the lockout began in March.
Moving forward, the tug of war can be decided one of three ways: It can either be solved with a victory for the owners through a new CBA, a victory for the players through a new CBA or individual suits by the players, or the lockout can continue indefinitely. At this point, the lockout will most likely continue indefinitely until at least June 3rd, when the next court hearing will take place, and a verdict will be made thereafter. If this court reverses the decision back to the original verdict for the ending of the lockout, then the players will have the advantage that they so desperately needed to gain through the court system. If the decision is made in favor of the players, the owners will lose significant ground in the tug of war, and it is very likely that a termination of the lockout will provide the players the leverage they need to bargain for a new agreement under their terms. This solution is the fastest and most efficient way to move towards a new labor agreement, but the question is whether or not it is legal to hamper the owners through the legal system.
If the court decision in June upholds the ruling of the appeals court, that the lockout remains in place because federal law bars injunctions in labor disputes, then the process will continue for much longer. The stalemate in the tug of war between players and owners will remain, and no side will have significant leverage. The question will then be, who will back down first? Because there are only 32 owners, as opposed to nearly 2000 players in the NFL, and the owners have been preparing for this fight for 4 years, the owners will most likely be the last group to back down. In addition, the owners pay the players, and once the players stop receiving their game checks, it is very likely that there will be a breach in the collective unity of the players. The NFL Players Union has already decertified, granted in an effort to file individual player suits, but there are multiple indications that the players will break their unity long before the owners, provided the courts stay out of the dispute.
That is why the courts ruling in the owners’ favor is so important in the dispute and so troubling for the players. The players needed the leverage to force the owners to back down; they realized that it would be near impossible to break the owners without litigation. Now that the court ruled in the owners favor, and if the decision is upheld in early June, neither side will have more rope in the tug of war. An indefinite tug and pull will then begin among owners and players without any outside legal involvement, and it will become a war of attrition: Which side will stay unified the longest. Unfortunately for NFL fans, this means more waiting and uncertainty, but if the courts uphold yesterday’s ruling, that is exactly what we will see. And what we won’t see, in all likelihood, is football in early fall.
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