by K. Kozla
A lot of talk has been going on about Collective Bargaining in sports (both Basketball and Football) and this is something that directly effects the current players, the players looking at getting into the games, the teams and more. Let’s take a moment to stop and look at exactly what this is.
Investopedia defines corporate bargaining as:
The process of negotiating the terms of employment between an employer and a group of workers. The terms of employment are likely to include items such as conditions of employment, working conditions and other workplace rules, base pay, overtime pay, work hours, shift length, work holidays, sick leave, vacation time, retirement benefits and health care benefits.
But what does that really mean? It means that one group of people (in this case the player associations for their respective sport) are working as a team to negotiate things for their contracts with another group of people (in this case the NBA or NFL depending on the sport we’re talking about). Both sides work to come to an agreement that protects the players and the overall sport and without this agreement you get a lock out like the NFL is currently going through.
The NBA could be thrust into that upheaval soon as the Collective Bargaining Agreement (which is sometimes referred to as the CBA) expires 6/30/2011 and if the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) do not come to an agreement there will be a lockout.
Merriam Webster online defines a lockout as:
the withholding of employment by an employer and the whole or partial closing of the business establishment in order to gain concessions from or resist demands of employees
So because the NFL and the NFL Players Association could not come up with a new agreement before the old agreement lapsed there was a lock out and players cannot work at their locations or work as an official team to prepare for the upcoming season. IF the NBA and the NBPA do not come up with an agreement in the next few days they will be thrust into the exact same situation. This not only puts the players at risk of losing that important time to get their bodies back to the place it needs to be to play safely at their most optimal condition and cohesively as a team in pre-season.
Both sides of the argument uphold that they are doing this for the good of the sport, but only time will tell if the decisions made by those in the powers that be will actually be so. Godspeed to the decision makers and those that it impacts on now and in the future.