NHL Lockout Around the Corner?
Go Canucks! (If there is a season this year)
For hockey fans, an NHL lockout would be like the apocalypse. The league wants money, and the players want a bigger piece from the “hockey-related revenues” pie. What surprises me is that the league is actually trying to cut the players’ portion of the revenue from 57% in the current agreement to 49% when the average NHL player already earns less than a player in the NBA or MLB. 1 The workplace is certainly not the safest in professional sports and yet they don’t get the compensation that the Players’ Association claims they deserve.
But from another perspective, the PA is also putting the season in jeopardy by refusing to agree to the NHL’s proposals. Compared to a regular person’s salary, they should be satisfied with what they are offered. The main ethical issue here is that the collective bargaining taking place now isn’t going anywhere, and both the business (NHL) and the trade union (NHLPA) are contributing to the possibility of the labour force losing work. Not just the players with no European connection, but all the employees that work for the NHL and its teams. Just because everyone wanted more pie, without a season, how will any of those people get the income they deserve as an employee and buy real pie?
1http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ycn-10423863
Article of Interest: http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/09/12/nhl-and-union-trade-new-offers-as-lockout-deadline-looms/
Images:
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/sports/photos/2012/08/30/940-nhl-nhlpa-8col.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-mmM7geBNbGg/Tr1pmW9x4OI/AAAAAAAAAFo/wXVhGqW7o3I/s289/Untitled-2.jpg
UPDATE: Vancouver Canucks staff face 20-per-cent cut in work week, paycheque should NHL lockout kick in (which it did!)