Following an extremely controversial year of politics revolving around unions’ collective bargaining rights, a much more public battle of union rights has erupted in America’s beloved professional sports leagues. As many already know, a few weeks ago the NFL finally came to an agreement on union negotiations for the referees. What was originally a lockout based on the refs’ pension plans quickly snowballed into a widespread pro-union call to action as fans across the country, ironically including our union-busting governor, showed their support for the locked-out officials. To everyone’s relief, the “real” refs were brought back following one of the most controversial calls of the season that led many Wisconsinites to officially disown former Badger Russell Wilson.
Although the NFL refs are currently back in action and the Packers are still losing games, a much more important issue still remains in the superior National Hockey League. The NHL’s seven-year-old contract has expired, and although they already gained a salary cap in the current collective bargaining agreement, NHL owners still want additional economic concessions from players. As a result, the NHL is locked out. Although the annual industry revenue grew from $2.1 billion to $3.3 billion under the expired deal, Gary Bettman, NHL Commissioner, believes that in these times of economic crisis, owners “need to retrench.”
Unfortunately the NHL doesn’t have the convenience of really bad refs to further negotiations. The current 25-day-old lockout, which has cancelled the entire preseason as well as the first two weeks of the regular season, has lost players and owners an estimated $240 million. The real problem revolves around the less profitable teams’ owners asking for more money. So when owners could easily come together and solve this problem, these billionaires decide they would much rather take it out on the players than fight each other.
To be honest, I don’t find myself too worried about any of the owners losing money. They probably still have more money while unemployed than I will in my whole life, but I guess I do sympathize for the players a little. Although many players are making millions, they are also undoubtedly risking their long-term health to put on a good show for the public. For many, this lockout could take a huge chunk out of their career. On the other hand, I have zero sympathy for the owners, who are the epitome of the 1 percent—or even the .001 percent—making billions, yet they are unwilling to come to an agreement and are instead trying to bust the players’ union. You know, the guys who actually make a sacrifice for their money.
Now not only am I pissed off that hockey isn’t on TV right now, but I am also concerned with the increasing amount of lockouts happening across the country outside the public’s beloved sports scene. While worker strikes have been dramatically falling across the country, lockouts are growing at record rates. Employers throughout the United States have gone on an increasing offensive, taking advantage of our current anti-union political climate and high unemployment to pressure workers to give in so the employers can call the shots in the bargaining process. And just like the NFL and NHL, these corporations locking out workers are doing just fine. As less experienced replacement workers step in, are paid less and perform horribly, the owners continue to rake in the dough.
So although many of us find ourselves writing off these sports labor disputes as millionaires fighting billionaires, it’s important to recognize these are the only nationwide discussions of union negotiations and union busting that have reached the hearts of the American people. If it takes something like the Packers losing a game to make people like Gov. Scott Walker recognize the importance of unions and collective bargaining, then I think we might need replacement refs in our schools, police force and government.
Jacob is a senior majoring in political science. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
