Refs Charges NBA with Unfair Labor Practices
According to Adrian Wojnarouski of Yahoo! Sports, the National Basketball Referee’s Association recently filled charges with the National Labor Relations Board, stating the NBA violated federal laws when they engaged in unfair labor practices. They outlined the charges by sending several memos to the 60 NBA’s referees saying “the league refused to negotiate with the union concerning non-collective bargaining agreements which expires September 1, 2011. But because the league was involved in a major labor battle with the players, and trying to get the matters resolved before the lockout deadline, they focused only on those matters. The referees union than hired an experience labor, employment attorney named Lee Seham to communicate on behalf of the refs from that point forward. Because when Seham and the NBA met to discuss the matters on three different occasions, and nothing was resolved, the referee association decided to move forward with their claims and complaints. Seham outlined the issues that the Refs had and they were. In the effort to find a non-economic dealing point for all parties involved to agree on, and they are as followed:
A. Weight and fitness restrictions
B. Travel issues
C. Anti-discrimination bases on race, sex, and union activity
D. The league’s ability to terminate a referee without cause- Is a act of bad faith
E. Alleged “obscene expression” by commissioner David Stem at the Union negotiation meeting held January 24, 2011. It stated: “ One of the league’s negotiators, got angry when the union’s attorney used” standard language found in many collective bargaining agreements” on discrimination. He became hostile, and used obscene expressions and the negotiator refused to delete the remarks from the meeting notes, and the negotiator left the room abruptly.
The Refs union felt that recently, the commissioner has been acting unprofessional and disrespectful since 2009, during union talks. The decision will be for the National Labor Relation Board to decide if the NBA has violated any federal laws. In response the union requested the NBA to propose a completely new deals. There wasn’t any response on the old/new deal being present by the NBA prior to September deadlines. More up-to-date according to Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo! Sports stated that the Refs and NBA finalize a new deal September 15, 2011 but not knowing the details of the deal, just that it was an agreement for five years and both parties were in agreement to the terms. In my opinion, this was a very important collective bargaining agreement in sports, because without Refs calling game plays correctly, the NBA season will be at risk of losing its creditability. Dwyer stated that in 1995-96 season, because replacement referees were used after their lockout, “a whole lot of calls went wrong”. I feel the league doesn’t have room for anymore-negative press time. In conclusion, because of the enormous responsibility of Referees, its essential that their concerns and needs are met in the highest level of priority and in order for the NBA to proceed without further delay due to the lockout issues, they made a very smart decision to quickly come to a new collective bargaining agreement before the season begins.
References
Dwyer, K.; “The NBA and its (referee sorry) have come to a deal.” September 15, 2011
http://sport.yahoo.com/nba/blog/bail_don’t_lie/post/the-nba-and-its-referees-sorry-
have-come-to-a?urn=nba-wp8466.
Wojnarowski, A. “Refs Charge NBA with Unfair Labor Practics” Yahoo! Sports. April 6
2011.
unfair_labor_practics_040611.
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