CFL, PLAYERS ARE COURTING DISASTER IN STALLED TALKS
Fans not likely to tolerate work stoppage after last two years of truncated seasons
Despite how this looks, the enemy is not the Canadian Football League or its commissioner Randy Ambrosie.
The enemy, according to the CFL Players Association leadership, is the calendar.
The current Collective Bargaining Agreement between the two sides expires on May 14.
The next bargaining session is scheduled for May 11. Though the players insist they want and need to talk again before May 11, they say the CFL is happy to wait.
Perhaps the league’s bargaining team thinks a ticking clock helps their cause more than it does the players, who won’t be in a legal strike position until the deal expires.
It is a delicate issue of timing, and it certainly appears the league is trying to apply as much leverage on that point as it can muster.
“The league insists that even if a strike is imminent, players must travel from their homes for a single day before training camp begins,” CFLPA leadership told its members in a Thursday night memo. “The league refuses to provide players’ costs to return to their homes. The league has threatened our association with a lawsuit if we were to tell you that a strike is imminent and not (to) travel to training camp. Furthermore, the league has put an ultimatum to accept their position on players reporting to camp or they would refuse to continue negotiations with us. Today’s session stopped before midday as we refused their offer.”
And that’s sadly where the situation stands today. Hard line bargaining like that against the clock is a tired cliché and likely only serves to further erode fan confidence in league leadership. Those fans were disappointed but largely supportive of their teams when the 2020 season fell victim to COVID-19. Many were still on board through a 2021 campaign shortened to 14 games. However, they will not easily stomach a work stoppage that threatens to kill whatever momentum the two sides had gained as partners committed to rebuilding a league and fine-tuning a game that clearly needs some tender love and care.
Players lost 22 game-cheques to the pandemic. Teams lost scads of money. Fans will lose the last of their patience if the two sides don’t start talking in time to produce a long-term deal and a full 18-game season.
“If we’re going to move forward as partners, then why do we always put ourselves in this position?” said CFLPA executive director Brian Ramsay, when asked why the process is always left to the last minute. “And it’s hard for us not to think that it’s just simply tactics by the CFL to try and bring our guys up for a day and then strand them when they’re coming from all over the world and North America. We want to get away from that. If we’re going to be partners moving forward, if we’re going to grow this, it doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything, but at least we could take this challenge away for all of us.”
They have told members to delay flights as long as they can, again in the hope that talks will resume before Wednesday and a fair deal will be done. It seems the players have been beating that drum for months.
“We bargained to get additional days to meet at the table. So that tells you the kind of fervour we have to try to get a settlement and try to get a deal done that’s fair for both sides,” said CFLPA president Solomon Elimimian.
They elected their bargaining committee in the fall of 2021. They were ready. They notified the league of their intent to bargain in February 2022. They were still ready. Talks didn’t start until March.
If the two sides were on the verge of a new deal, it might make sense to wait until Wednesday for more negotiating. But the players have flatly rejected the league’s latest proposal, and little wonder given that it includes a 10-year term with no increase in the salary cap; elimination of the Canadian and veteran American ratio, a reduction in Canadian players, a revenue-sharing deal that is not likely to show any growth in the first five years; a return to padded practices without a bump in medical coverage to handle what will surely be an increase in injuries; and no consideration of the players’ request for guaranteed contracts.
“With their latest proposal, the CFL is threatening to fundamentally change Canadian football,” said Elimimian. “That worries our bargaining team and our membership and the CFL’s position should concern fans and the league partners as well. The latest proposal by the CFL makes the game less safe, less competitive and desirable, provides less stability, dismisses the players’ important role as key partners in the game’s growth and it makes it less Canadian.”
It certainly looks that way. The CFL, however, did not respond to requests for comment. The only signs of life at the league were a couple of tweets; one assuring fans that Canadians and veteran Americans are the “lifeblood” of the league and will remain so, the other stating that “we are deeply committed to a long-term, mutually beneficial partnership with our players.”
With their latest proposal, the CFL is threatening to fundamentally change Canadian football.