Cautious optimism for labour peace
QUIET NATURE OF NHL TALKS MAY BE A GOOD THING
Representatives from the NHL and NHL Players’ Association have met numerous times over the past eight months and not once in a secret underground bunker or a dark parking garage.
Unlike previous collective bargaining negotiations that spilled out into the public, few details are emerging from behind closed doors, a development that provides more than a little quiet optimism that hockey won’t face its third work stoppage in two decades.
“It’s probably the way it should be, and I think that’s probably a good sign that there is some mutual respect and both sides are trying to come to agreements,” Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said. “You have mutual dedication to keeping our game going down the same path and not disrupting that.”
Players have until Sunday to decide whether to opt out of the current labour contract effective September 2020 after owners decided earlier this month not to trigger their opt-out clause. The sides met twice in the past five days to try to hammer out a CBA extension, and the fragments of reports coming out of talks suggest an environment of co-operation that is less contentious than previous negotiations.
NHLPA executive director Don Fehr described talks as cordial and pleasant. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman called it joint problem-solving. That doesn’t mean there aren’t disagreements, but they may not be big enough to cause the cancellation of games, which is what happened in 2012-13 and 200405.
“This is an outgrowth of a relationship that is many years old, even with Don in hockey coming over from baseball,” Bettman said. “It’s a dialogue that continues. It’s a relationship that’s important, there’s mutual respect, there’s good communication flow and we’re busy focused on what may for each of our constituents be the appropriate path forward.”
On the job since 2010, Fehr said these talks have so far been “free from rancour” and deemed that a big improvement. It’s certainly a divergence from the past two CBA disputes in the NHL that were marred by leaks. It all leads labour expert Stephen F. Ross to infer talks are progressing better this time around.
“The NHL has a particular history that I think would allow a, not 100 per cent choice, but a relatively optimistic interpretation of silence,” said Ross, director of the Penn State Institute for Sports Law, Policy and Research. “The fact that there’s nothing public and no leaks suggests to me a high likelihood that things are going well and nobody wants to damage the good relations.”