Currently viewing the tag: “Owners”
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NFL Players Seek Order Barring Owners From Accessing Lockout-Related Money
Bloomberg National Football League players, as part of a lawsuit filed against the league in 1992, today asked a US judge to bar owners from accessing some labor lockout-related revenues until the current impasse … Players ask judge for damages in NFL TV case Players to ask for “substantial” damages award in “lockout insurance” case NFL Players Gain Victory Over League in Workers' Comp Dispute |
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The NFL team owners are sitting on a $ 4 billion war chest. Yet they are attacking not only the players, but their most vulnerable employees as well: concession stand sellers, groundskeepers and office staff.
The Buffalo Bills already have announced pay cuts across the organization, calling it a “program of shared sacrifice.” But the concession workers and game-day workers are doing all the “sharing.” Workers like Billie Feliciano, a mother of two who works at the 49er Stadium in San Francisco, and who says a lockout would mean she and her co-workers would not have any money to take care of their families. (See video above)
Or Keith Strong, a cook at Ford Field, who says:
This is more than a seasonal job. It helps people pay their bills and have a better life. And if they don’t have that, there’s going to be a lot of sad people this season.
In a commentary on ESPN.Com, Howard Bryant writes:
In the middle of a massive and prolonged national economic downturn, the NFL is also placing its own rank-and-file employees — the ones who work in ticket sales and promotions and community relations who aren’t in front of the camera on third-and-long and who won’t earn in 10 years what Tom Brady earns in 10 minutes — in serious financial distress.
The team owners could end the workers’ distress easily. They unilaterally declared the lockout and they could end it at anytime. Instead, they prepared for the lockout by negotiating access to $ 4 billion in rights fees from the TV networks. It also saved additional money in event of a work stoppage. Yet, Bryant says, “even with that in hand, the NFL is threatening layoffs and benefit reductions of its employees, the very people who need their jobs the most.” Read Bryant’s full commentary here.
Each community with an NFL team stands to lose as much as $ 160 million from the lockout next season. If the owners get away with the lockout, it could cost 150,000 jobs nationwide and have a ripple effect on how other workers across the country are treated, according to people who labor on the field and in the stadiums.
The 32 NFL teams employ on average 3,739 people each, including players, concession workers and office staff. If the lockout lasts a long time, layoffs are likely and many of those jobs would not come back, said Jesse David, senior vice president of the economic consulting firm Edgeworth Economics, who conducted a study of the impact of a lockout for the NFL Players Association before it renounced its staus as a union.
USA Today |
NFL Owners Tell Court They Oppose Player Bid to Halt Lockout
BusinessWeek March 21 (Bloomberg) — National Football League owners told a US judge they oppose a bid by 10 NFL players who want an order blocking their lockout while the parties battle over a new collective bargaining agreement. … NFL, Roger Goodell the face of calm as owners meetings come to close Don't expect a speedy resolution to NFL's labor woes Eye-opener: How do you feel about the NFL's new kickoff rules? |
CBC.ca |
NFL, Roger Goodell the face of calm as owners meetings come to close
NOLA.com As the NFL concluded its annual owners meeting Tuesday in New Orleans, it trotted out Commissioner Roger Goodell, who as is his wont presented an unflappable front in the face of a rapidly escalating labor crisis. … Eye-opener: How do you feel about the NFL's new kickoff rules? Don't expect a speedy resolution to NFL's labor woes With 2011 NFL season in doubt due to work stoppage, owners vote on some rules … |
Just what is behind the National Football League (NFL) owners’ lockout of the players this past weekend when talks for a new collective bargaining agreement broke off? James Surowiecki of The New Yorker writes in this week’s edition:
It’s about very rich businessmen thinking that they should be even richer.
He says that “With the possible exception of the members of OPEC, N.F.L. owners have pretty much the coziest business arrangement imaginable”
They’re effectively members of a cartel—able to limit competition, enhance bargaining power, and hold down costs. Instead of competing against each other for TV money, the owners share it, reducing risk and guaranteeing steady revenue regardless of how well they run their teams. The result of all this was nicely summed up by Richard Walden, head of sports finance at JPMorgan Chase, who said, “I’ve never seen an N.F.L. team lose money.”
Surowiecki also notes the owners are far more socialist than free market capitalists
N.F.L. owners have never liked the idea of a free labor market, which might cost them more and also threaten the league’s competitive balance… They have created a socialist paradise for themselves that happens to bring with it capitalist-size profits.
Read the entire article here.
Also, if you are looking for the latest news on the NFL’s lockout of the players, (which cuts off the players’ and their families’ health insurance and prevents them from practicing) visit www.nfllockout.com. When the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) renounced its status as a union in order to take legal action against the owners’ lockout, nfllockout.com replaced the NFLPA website.
You can read the full transcript of yesterday’s national conference call by player leaders, including Kevin Mawa who told reporters:
If you look at every one of their moves for the last two years, from opting out of the last year of the CBA back in the fall of 2008, to the way that they negotiated the TV deals to basically put money in their pockets as a lockout fund.
Everything that they’ve done has been a strategy for a lockout.
You can also read requests from the NFLPA to owners seeking financial information to back the owners’ claims that they are losing money and need to cut players’ pay $ 1 billion. The owners refused.
There is also a listing of the owners’ final demands that they characterized as a meet-in-the middle compromise offer. But in fact was little different from their long-standing give-back demands.
For another take on the lockout and the owners’ absurd attempt to align themselves with the struggle by the worker’s Wisconsin, check out The Nation’s Dave Zinn’s column (click here) who writes the owners’ statement “took the chutzpah scale to new, unimagined heights.”
If you haven’t seen The Onion’s SportsDome yet, you should be ashamed of yourself. It’s hilarious. For example: Onion SportsDome
If you haven’t seen The Onion’s SportsDome yet, you should be ashamed of yourself. It’s hilarious. For example: Onion SportsDome
 CBC.ca |
Paper: NFL owners have cash reserves to weather lost 2011 season
USA Today Even without its TV money, the NFL may be well-prepared for the possibility of a lost 2011 season. Owners have stockpiled enough money to carry them through a potential cancellation of the 2011 due to the current lockout, … Fans biggest losers as NFL lookout looms Digging into a big reason the lockout is here Don't Be Fooled |
 Reuters |
Owners lock out players after union decertifies
NFL News The NFL is now in total chaos and it's all because of the money. It's always because of the money. In this case, the owners and NFL Players Association were unable to agree on how to split the mammoth $ 9 billion in revenue that the cash-cow business of … Clark Hunt Talks About The NFL Lockout AFC North Player Movement NFL's labor negotiations reach impasse |
Reuters |
NFL owners, players have an accomplice in this sad development
NOLA.com Here's what I've learned during the past few weeks of bluster and rhetoric in NFL labor talks: The league officially is the Colossus of American entertainment. Michael DeMocker/The Times-PicayuneMassive stadium deals, … Lockout confirmed, players sue owners Lupica: Ugly NFL labor fight isn't becoming of a league that is thriving NFL's labor negotiations reach impasse |
CBC.ca |
NFL Lockout 2011: NFLPA, Owners Both Lose With Work Stoppage
SB Nation Seattle No matter how you slice it, Saturday is a bad day for the NFL and its players. Following a week of intense negotiations, a new collective bargaining agreement never materialized as the NFL Players Association dissolved and the league locked the players … NFL Labor Fumble: Union Dissolves, Owners Lock Out Players Lockout Leaves NFL in Limbo Judge, Jury, Executioner? Doty Gives NFL the Chills |
CBC.ca |
Owners, players, NFL executives react to dark day for NFL
The Canadian Press Owners, players, NFL executives, it didn't matter who you asked: Saturday was a dark day for pro football. In the wake of the players' union decertifying Friday, then filing antitrust lawsuits, followed by the league staging a lockout, … NFL Labor Fumble: Union Dissolves, Owners Lock Out Players George Wilson Talks Lockout Judge, Jury, Executioner? Doty Gives NFL the Chills |
CBC.ca |
NFL Labor Fumble: Union Dissolves, Owners Lock Out Players
ABC News Late Friday, the NFL Players' Association, the union that represents professional football players in labor negotiations, opted to decertify, or dissolve. That means the players have given up their right to collectively bargain and … NFLPA lawyer was a Judge Doty law clerk Mike Brown Q and A on lockout The predictable end |
Globe and Mail |
NFL Shuts Down After Players Sue Owners on How to Split $ 9 Billion Income
Bloomberg The National Football League, the most-watched and richest sport in the US, shut down after players rejected management's proposal to split $ 9 billion in annual income. … NFL labor talks get set to head to court Collective bargaining agreement expires; NFL locks out players NFL labor talks break down; players head to court |
