Sunday, September 18, 2011

2011-12 NBA Lockout: Employment Laws and Unions

A sports league lockout is when owners and player associations (unions) renegotiate the terms of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA).  This agreement dictates salaries and salary caps for players and organizations.  This year, two of the most highly populated sports leagues in the United States, the National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) announced that it would commence a lockout of its players.  The NFL’s lockout lasted from March 11, 2011 to July 25, 2011.  The season was started on time.  The NBA’s lockout became effective at 12:01 am ET on July 1, 2011, and is currently pending.  As the lockout puts the 2011-12 NBA season in jeopardy the players and team owners are not the only people to be affected by the stoppage.  Team employees, arena workers, city officials, and the fans are all being affected. 

By far, I believe that the NBA lockout is the most controversial employment law and union debate within the sports industry.  Keep in mind that during the lockout, players will not receive their salaries; teams will not negotiate, sign or trade player contracts; players will not be able to use team facilities for any purpose; and teams will not conduct or facilitate any extra business dealings associated with each the franchise.  This would be acceptable by the players union if there was a deadline to get the negotiation completed but there is no deadline.  In this case, the player’s union placed a lawsuit against the team’s owners for intentionally delaying actions to renew the collective bargaining agreement
The average player salary for the 2010-11 season was $5.15 million.  Over the six-year term of the expired CBA, the average player salary increased by a total of 16%.
With the lockout reaching 2½ months and union executive director Billy Hunter telling reporters Tuesday that he has already cautioned players to expect to miss up to half of the upcoming season.  Because of this, there are speculations of key players traveling overseas to play and to gain a source of income.  You cannot have a league without players but players will ultimately have a welcoming overseas.
The 1998-99 NBA lockout reduced the season to a 50-game schedule.  Will this lockout be to that extent?  

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