CBA talks off to ‘productive’ start

League, players union have until May deadline to hammer out deal

For Jeff Keeping and the CFL Players’ Association, it was a good opening day.

The players and CFL held their first collective bargaining session Monday. The two sides are scheduled to meet again Tuesday.

“It was a good day, it was productive,” said Keeping, the CFLPA president. “We had a very thorough discussion.

“This was more about introducing the two groups and laying the groundwork for how we’re going to move forward.”

The present agreement is scheduled to expire in May before the start of training camp. That leaves the two sides with roughly two months to reach a deal.

“Yeah, we have enough time,” Keeping said. “We just need to get the groups together and keep working.”

Senior adviser Ken Georgetti and executive director Brian Ramsay led the union into Monday’s talks as chair and vice-chair, respectively. Keeping, second vice-president Solomon Elimimian, third vicepresident Rolly Lumbala, treasurer Peter Dyakowski and player reps John Bowman (Montreal Alouettes), Bear Woods (Toronto Argonauts) and Chad Rempel (Winnipeg Blue Bombers) rounded out the CFLPA’s unit.

Ramsay said it’s important active players be involved in bargaining.

“This is an agreement that’s a player’s agreement,” he said. “The more players that are a part of that, I think that’s a bet- ter thing for everybody involved and we’re going to continue to approach it that way.”

The CFL’s bargaining team is again led by Stephen Shamie, the league’s general counsel. Shamie was an integral figure in the 2014 talks with then-commissioner Mark Cohon. CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie is expected to participate in the opening bargaining sessions.

Rounding out the league’s player-relations committee are: Scott Mitchell (CEO, Hamilton Tiger-Cats); Roger Greenberg (co-owner, Ottawa Redblacks); Rick LeLacheur (B.C. Lions president); and Wade Miller (Winnipeg Blue Bombers president/CEO).

Neither Keeping nor Ramsay would divulge specific details regarding Monday’s discussion. All Ramsay said was the two sides spent time face-to-face, as well as in their respective groups.

“We won’t be going into any details,” Ramsay said. “But the points we’ve talked about before (still) remain important to the players.

“This was a productive start and we’re looking forward to coming back and talking (Tuesday). That’s a positive thing.”

The two sides will also determine Tuesday when and where talks will resume. The expectation is the next round of bargaining will shift to Vancouver.

This marks Georgetti’s first collective bargaining experience with the CFLPA, which he joined in 2016. But Georgetti is a former president of the Canadian Labour Congress and has more than 35 years of labour relations experience.

Keeping is in his second CBA negotiation, participating in 2014 as a CFLPA executive member.