Last Thursday I got an e-mail from my friend L, who attends Queen's
University in Ontario. She'd just spotted a poster
advertising a talk the next day titled "Inside the NHL Negotiations: A
View from the NHLPA," given by NHLPA Director of Operations Alexandra Dagg. I begged L to take notes for me, and she came through like a
champ. Here's a rundown of the highlights, most of it paraphrased
because I don't want to misinterpret L's notes and accidentally
attribute an incorrect quote.
The talk was focused on
unions and labor relations, since it was put on by the
Industrial Relations program in the School of Policy Studies. Apparently
they tried to get an NHL player for the talk, but that wasn't viable.
So it was just Dagg, who's worked with the NHLPA for a year and various
other unions (specifically garment and hotel unions) for decades before
that. If you've been paying attention to media coverage of the lockout,
you might recognize her as the person who wrote that letter to Canadian Parliament about how this lockout is all the owners' fault. She's also been quoted in various articles about the NHLPA's attempts to get the Canadian government involved in ending the lockout.
Dagg
said that in her previous work, the biggest media challenge was drawing
attention to the disputes, whereas the NHLPA is surrounded by media. (You can tell she's based in Canada, not the United States.) When
asked how the media scrutiny affects communication channels between the
union and the players, she said they try not to put things on paper and
expect anything written to be leaked. They have a password-protected
mobile app for communication with the players, which I hadn't heard
about, but they try to communicate confidentially by phone. NHLPA
conference calls can have 100 players on them, out of 730 players in the
league. (That number sounds low; that must be because only players who
are currently under contract are union members. Huh--that must mean free
agents like PK Subban and Michael Del Zotto don't get any input into
negotiations. I hadn't thought of that.)
Most of the
discussion of CBA negotiations was what you'd expect--it's about
respect, the players are at a disadvantage, the owners are the ones who
started the lockout and they're the ones letting it continue. Dagg said
that the league's initial offer was insulting, and she called their
organization a "cartel" in her explanation of the reasoning behind the
decertification option. There's no real industry competition to draw
customers elsewhere, so the NHL can basically do whatever the hell it
wants without fear of recrimination. She said there's this assumption
that the players have bargaining power because they're the product, but
the issue with that is career length--the average NHL career is four
years, and 70% of the current NHL wasn't around for the last lockout.
They want to get back on the ice while they can, and the owners know it.
Also, you have to be pretty rich to acquire an NHL franchise in the
first place, so none of the owners are losing their entire income from
this.
Dagg cracked the Bettman's-hat-trick-of-lockouts
joke (which got a laugh because apparently not everyone spends as much
time reading about the lockout on Twitter as I do) and then said,
"Bettman doesn't think that's funny." She called Bettman a lightning
rod, which I think is a pretty accurate metaphor for the abuse people
pile on him that should be directed at the owners. When someone asked a
question about the signing frenzies in the summer, Dagg said that the
owners need the union to save them from themselves.
In
response to a question about mediation (this was last Friday, before the
federal mediators were brought in) she said that the NHLPA isn't
entitled to it and there's no reason for the owners to agree to it. I
know she wasn't going to just come out and say, "oh yeah, mediation is
happening next week, keep an ear out for the announcement on Monday,"
but this answer strikes me as less of an avoiding-the-question type
answer and more of an implication that she actually wasn't aware of the
imminent development, which kind of intrigues me. Not that it matters,
what with the clusterfuck the mediation attempt turned out to be. I
still say they should give Arthur Boylan
a shot, both because he actually seems to understand the concept of
battling depersonalization and because the idea of Don Fehr and Gary
Bettman going out for cocktails after work together cracks me up. But I
digress.
Dagg talked about the players' charity
efforts, mostly in "look how kind and generous the players are, not like
those Scroogey owners" terms, but one bit of info stood out: apparently
the players have to pay their own insurance to play in charity games. I
hadn't realized that, and am now more sincerely impressed by those who
played in Operation Hat Trick.
According to Dagg, the NHLPA will pay for the airfare and hotel costs of
any player who wants to attend negotiations. This is another reason
it's ridiculous for the NHL to try to claim that Fehr isn't being honest
with players. Almost 100 players have taken the NHLPA up on this offer
at some point; if they can't keep confidential memos from leaking to the
press, there's no way those hundred players aren't telling the rest
what's going on in the meetings.
In response to a question about Roman Hamrlik,
Dagg said that it was her first time dealing with an NHLPA member
publicly criticizing the union, and that they try to keep difficult
conversations internal, but all players are allowed to have their
opinions. She contrasted that with the NHL's quarter-million fines for
speaking out. Then she pointed out that Hamrlik hasn't been on any of
the conference calls or showed up to any of the meetings, and said that
he should come. If I were a player, I sure as hell would.
(Many thanks to L for the detailed notes!)
