Archive: December, 2012
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
The NHL’s players union made a counter-offer to the league during Monday’s meeting in New York City, but there was no end to the labor dispute that has produced a 107-day lockout.
The NHL said it was reviewing the players’ proposal and that both sides are expected to meet again on Tuesday, which was supposed to be the day the Winter Classic was held at Michigan Stadium.
The labor stoppage has caused the cancellation of all games through Jan. 14.
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
The NHL and the players’ union will meet in New York City Monday morning, trying to hammer out a collective bargaining agreement and end the 107-day lockout.
The sides met for 2 1/2 hours Sunday to go over the NHL's latest proposal, but there was no formal negotiating.
On Monday, the union is expected to make a counter-proposal to the owners’ latest offer, which contained 300 pages.
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
The NHL has made some concessions in trying to salvage part of the season.
According to multiple reports Friday, the league has offered teams one compliance (some call it “amnesty”) buyout before 2013-14, and has proposed allowing six-year contracts, an increase from the previous offer of five years. There was no change in a previous proposal in which teams could re-sign their own players to seven-year contracts.
The players want eight-year maximums on contracts.
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
As expected, the NHL Players’ Association voted overwhelming in favor of asking its executive board to file a “disclaimer of interest,” a move that would disband the union and enable it to file an anti-trust lawsuit that claims the league’s lockout is illegal.
The players’ executive board has until Jan. 2 to file the claim.
Maybe it will be filed. Or maybe the vote, which started Sunday and ended Friday, was just an attempt to back the NHL into a negotiating corner.
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
The NHL on Thursday added two more weeks of cancellations, erasing contests through Jan. 14 because the league and the players do not have a collective bargaining agreement.
Almost 51 percent of the season has been canceled, and the Flyers have had 41 games _ exactly half their schedule _ wiped out by the labor war.
Both sides still hope to play a 48-game season.
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
The NHL labor war is crawling toward a conclusion, but no one knows if the ending will put the players back on the ice.
Or just ice the season.
Optimists say the stalemate will come into better focus after the players’ vote on dissolving the union is finalized Thursday. The results may not be known until Friday, and the players would have until Jan. 2 to file the “disclaimer of interest.”
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
It’s Day 91 of the NHL lockout, and both sides are lawyered to the max.
NHLPA: Waaaaaah! We’ll go to court and prove the lockout is illegal.
NHL: Waaaaaah! We’ll get the courts to void all the players’ contracts.
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
The NHL Players’ Association, locked in a three-month labor dispute with the owners, may file a disclaimer of interest and dissolve the union in the next few days, according to multiple reports.
If it did, the players could file an anti-trust suit against the league and ask a judge to declare the lockout illegal.
The lockout reached 90 days on Friday.
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
A representative from the NHL and the players’ union met on Thursday but failed to make any progress during the 89th day of the lockout.
No future talks have been scheduled.
Steve Fehr, special counsel for the NHL Players’ Association, and NHL attorney Bob Batterman met with a federal mediator in Iselin, N.J., but the talks were fruitless.
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
Last week, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman angrily took all of the league’s offers off the bargaining table.
On Wednesday, he put them back on it, according to Sportsnet of Canada.
Still, the NHL and the players’ union could not reach an agreement and resolve their labor dispute.
