Nuclear Summer (and Winter?)

by Harlan Schreiber

Until recently, the NBA-NBPA negotiations have been relatively quiet but now things are starting to get a bit funky.  The players have doubted the amount of money losses that the NBA has set forth in their financials, which has created an impasse.  More recently, the NBPA filed a complaint with NLRB claiming that the NBA has not been bargaining in good faith.  In other words, the NBPA did not like that the NBA was not budging and sought leverage by getting a ruling from the NLRB that would make the NBA make concessions.  The NLRB complaint is pending but it seems like a long shot since, absent some sort of proof of egregious behavior.  The complaint really just boils down to the fact that the NBPA doesn’t like that the NBA doesn’t want to move on a deal but there really isn’t a reason that a party to a labor negotiation can refuse to accede to terms it feels are unfavorable.

Rather, the NBPA’s best hope of killing the lockout was mapped out in this summer’s NFL labor dispute, where the NFLPA decertified, meaning that it no longer would exist as a union.  The import of this move, from a legal perspective, is that the league would no longer be permitted to lockout the players, since federal law only allows owners to lockout a formally certified union.  Once in violation of federal law, the owners would be exposed to a potential antitrust lawsuit and treble damages (triple the amount of financial damages that were proven, as well as attorneys fees).  Continue reading Nuclear Summer (and Winter?)…

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