The NFL, the Players' Union, the 2011 CBA and the Wisconsin Union Raid

In 2008, when the NFL was planning a lockout of players to encourage major changes in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), fan sentiment seemed to be with them.

Back then, the majority of fans were not particularly sensitive about millionaire players having to take a cut in pay.  Sympathy for such athletes was rare in an environment where the average middle class worker had his or her average household income decreased by an average of $2,000 per year.  And that figure was released before the Great Recession hit and unemployment skyrocketed!

Unions had shrunk to less than 7% of American workers, and, except for three major unions of government workers, had almost no power left in America. 

Thus, a players union consisting of athletes earning twenty to thirty times the average salary of most Americans did not elicit public sympathy.

Given this, the NFL expected no major public outcry about asking these highly paid athletes to subject their bodies to two more games each season. Trading off two practice games for two season games seemed like, at the very least, a throwaway negotiating option—one that would both force players into taking a major pay cut, and allow a rookie pay scale that eliminated the million dollar first-year salary for unproven players.

NFL owners felt the players would have no option but to agree to the terms.  And polls showed that the owners were, in fact, in a strong position. 

But then a political issue arose which has radically altered the NFL labor universe.

In February, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker introduced a law that would outlaw unions representing government workers from collective bargaining. 

The bill would give the government of Wisconsin the right to change teachers and government worker's salaries, benefits, or working conditions at any time they so choose.

It almost slid by without much comment. But, as often happens in politics, the blow back built slowly but steadily. 

At the time of this writing, the opposition to the bill is so strong that it is the major issue American politics.  News broadcasts lead with the Wisconsin story, showing the masses of people demonstrating at the Wisconsin Legislature and other the cities in the state. 

Massive demonstrations supporting the unions' position have sprung up in many cities, and, suddenly, the issue of union bargaining rights is front and center. Now, polls show that 61% of Americans are for collective bargaining and against the proposed law.

As mentioned, the CBA expires real soon.  Timing is everything.

The players’ prospects in negotiating the CBA have suddenly gone from grim to rosy.  With the momentum of the Wisconsin argument behind them, the players union now has the wind at their backs instead of in their faces.

They can now appeal to the fans to support them in their quest to renew the CBA, and to resist the more unpleasant of the owners' requests.

We have, of course, no crystal ball to predict the outcome, but the issue of labor relations between the NFL and the players union has gone from ho hum to, well, interesting!

We, the fans, now have something to entertain us besides droll and boring draft weekends.

Stay tuned for further developments.