The 2010-11 NBA regular season was fantastic, and the ongoing playoffs have been even better. But off basketball courts and in the legal realm, the league owners and players union continue to disagree. An eventual lockout continues to appear likely.
Chris Sheridan of ESPN reports:
The union for NBA players filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the National Labor Relations Board Tuesday, seeking an injunction that would prevent owners from imposing a lockout when the current collective bargaining agreement expires June 30.
The players’ union, less than a month after receiving the latest formal proposal from the owners, is accusing the owners of negotiating in bad faith.
The complaint, in part, alleges the NBA is “making harsh, inflexible, and grossly regressive ‘takeaway’ demands that the NBA knows are not acceptable to the Union.”
The complaint further alleges the NBA is engaging in “classic ‘take it or leave it’ and surface bargaining” with the intent of running out the clock on the CBA, “until the NBA locks out the represented employees in order to coerce them into accepting the NBA’s harsh and regressive demands.”
The NBA issued a statement in response to the complaint.
“There is no merit to the charge filed today by the Players Association with the National Labor Relations Board, as we have complied — and will continue to comply — with all of our obligations under the federal labor laws. It will not distract us from our efforts to negotiate in good faith a new collective bargaining agreement with the Players Association,” the league said in a statement.
I really hope this somehow gets resolved over the next month, though it isn’t looking likely.
