The weekend has passed without any further indication of the labor dispute being resolved. With the threat of a full-season lock out still very present and the Winter Classic near cancelation, the pressure is trending more toward the behest of League Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly.
"We withdrew our most recent proposal on Friday,” Daly told TSN’s Pierre LeBrun on Monday. “and now we are spending time thinking about our next proposal and how best to get closer to a resolution. We hope the Union is doing the same thing. Given the fact that the Union refused even to discuss our last proposal, it would appear that we still have a large gulf to bridge."
While Daly’s words seem intent on a resolution, it was the NHL that abruptly stopped talks with the NHLPA on Thursday, having spent just ten minutes reviewing three separate counter-proposals distributed by the executive director of the Players’ Association, Donald Fehr, in response to the NHL’s “50-50” collective bargaining agreement proposal.
The title “collective bargaining agreement” is just that, a collective agreement made between the two entities; something that the NHL’s upper management has been thus far unwilling to agree upon, nor discuss. The stance taken blatantly clear by the NHL was that if the offer given wasn’t agreed upon by Thursday, it would disappear. It has, and a whole month of hockey has been lost at this point. 326 games canceled, %26.5 of the regular season, at an estimated $720 million loss.
Though Doanld Fehr has a tough history of work stoppages, the NHL’s commissioner since 1993, Gary Bettman, has now been at the helm of three work stoppages during his tenure. Prior to the full season plus playoffs lock out of 2004-05, Bettman was at the forefront of the 1994-95 season which was shortened to 48 games from 84, lasting 104 days.
The current situation is not too dissimilar to either of the previous lock outs, leaving the burning question on the tongue of the hockey enthusiast as to which way this one will go after forty-four days of a work stoppage. The fact that both men in the limelight at the moment are not short of work stoppages in any way is worrisome.
Though it is widely believed that both parties need to take action and make ground, it is the NHL that seems to be set in their ways by not having continued negotiations with the Players’ Association.
"Since the last bargaining meeting on Oct. 18, we have consistently made it clear to the League that we are ready to meet and are willing to discuss all ideas, certainly including their last proposal," NHLPA counsel Steve Fehr told TSN on Monday.
"The league has unfortunately continued to decline to meet. Their position makes it difficult to move the process forward, as it is obviously hard to make progress without talking."
- Kendall Grubbs
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