The NBA continues trying to force players to eat a giant shit sandwich. Commissioner David Stern issued an ultimatum, giving players until Wednesday afternoon to accept a lousy, concession-filled contract proposal or face an even worse offer. The basketball players union is declining to call a vote in response to the ultimatum; players, meanwhile, are having diverse responses. Some want a vote, being willing to trade concessions that will be with them for years for a guarantee that they won't lose an entire season's pay this year. Others are calling for decertification of the union, which would lay the groundwork for an anti-trust suit against the owners:
The mere threat of decertification would provide the players with much-needed leverage in the labor dispute. Anticipating such a move, the league filed a federal lawsuit, calling it an "impermissible pressure tactic," and saying it has had a "direct, immediate and harmful" effect on the negotiations. The suit seeks a declaration from the court that the lockout does not violate antitrust laws in the event the union decertifies. [...]
Here's the key to the whole process: This bargaining relationship continues to exist as long as the union is in place. If the players dissolve the union, the bargaining relationship dissolves with it. Without the bargaining relationship, the league is no longer shielded from antitrust laws.
Much of the economic structure of the NBA -- such as the salary cap, maximum salaries, rookie-scale salaries and the luxury tax -- could be challenged under the antitrust laws as a form of price fixing if there was no union. The lockout itself could be challenged as a group boycott.
People often dismiss labor disputes like this as "millionaires against billionaires." Fine. But the millionaires have made giant concessions, already having offered to go from receiving 57 percent of league revenue to 52.5 percent, and the billionaires are demanding more. The millionaires put their bodies on the line—while basketball players may not be subject to the brain damage and shortened lifespans football players face, most experience multiple painful injuries over the course of a career—and have, on average, five years in the NBA to solidify their status as millionaires. The billionaires' earning power does not face such physical limits. They're just being plain fucking greedy. It's been the plan all along, it's why they locked players out, and it's why they continue to push for deeper and deeper concessions, complete with ultimatum.
Wed Nov 09, 2011 at 11:07 AM PT: ESPN reports that the owners and players are meeting one more time before the ultimatum expires at 5:00 ET today. Player representatives backed the union's recommendation to reject that ultimatum.