Re: "How will the labor peace be achieved?"

[wfcooper@tiac.net (Bill Cooper)]

Paul,
	I was under the impression that the NFL players went the
decertification route a few years ago, and it didn't pan out (maybe
someone has a better memory for the details that I do).    In theory
it makes good sense, since most of the negative (from the players
point of view) provisions of the salary system, would be a violation
of anti-trust law.
	If you decertify, though, you're putting a lot of faith in the
willingness of the federal judiciary to actually enforce anti-trust.
Most judges, are, in fact, convinced that anti-trust law is a loony
manifestation of 19nth century populism, and would prefer to ignore it
completely.

Bill C.
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On Wed, 1 Jul 1998 14:23:05 -0800, Paul M. wrote:

>Got this off: www.oregonian.com/sports/spst/9807/sp070101.html.
>Thought you guys might be interested.
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>>      How will labor peace be achieved?
>>      "This is the issue that will absolutely break the backs of the
>>owners: Are guaranteed contracts enforceable during a lockout?" Fegan
>>said. (Dan Fegan is Jerome Kersey's agent.) "If they are, the owners would
>>be obligated to pay more than a half-billion dollars in player salaries
>>(next season), and would they do that when they're not generating any
>>revenue?"
>>      Herb Rudoy, the agent for free agent Arvydas Sabonis, predicted that
>>the solution will come after the players decertify their union.
>>      "More than 90 percent of the players signed petitions this spring
>>giving the union's executive committee the power to decertify."
>>      "Decertification is the arrow that will force the league to
>>negotiate; this is not going to be collectively bargained," Rudoy said.
>>      "I think the union will decertify within 60 days, after the two
>>sides have reached a legal impasse," he said. "The National Labor
>>Relations Board would have to set the election to decertify. The union
>>would reinvent itself as some kind of a trade organization, with lawyers
>>for the players negotiating for them."
>>      "Then this thing will be over rather quickly, because you will have
>>left labor law and gotten into antitrust law, where everything the league
>>does, such as the draft, is a violation."
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>Yes?...no?....make any sense?
>
>Paul M
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