Burnside: Why the strong-arm tactics?

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ColoradoHockeyFan

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http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?id=2026246

A worthwhile read in its entirety, but here are a few excerpts:

Players insist they will follow executive director Bob Goodenow to the ends of the earth (did anyone say over a cliff?), but if that solidarity is really so ingrained, why is the union threatening to take back the lockout pay of those who decide to become replacement players?

And why is the union threatening to decertify any agent who has the temerity to represent replacement players?

If everyone is in line, walking in one step, speaking with one voice, then such heavy-handed measures wouldn't be necessary. Right?
The league also is poised to file a second complaint with the NLRB on Friday against the NHLPA's threats to punish agents, a source told ESPN.com Wednesday. The league had asked the NHLPA to assure agents they won't be decertified for representing replacement players, but the union's response on Wednesday wasn't satisfactory in allaying the league's concerns, the source added.
Yet by threatening its membership and their agents, the union actually weakens its solidarity by revealing itself as petulant and unyielding.

"They've said it. It's 100 percent confirmed," one agent said of the union's twin threats.

"It is so wrong what they're doing," the agent said. "I understand where they're coming from, but this is so desperate. It's heavy-handed. But it's exactly who they are. They rule by fear. People are too afraid to say what they think."

The situation so enraged former Atlanta Thrashers president Stan Kasten that he has announced he will represent players who want to become replacement players, and he's calling on any lawyer who ever wanted to be a sports agent to come forward and offer up their services, too.
 

mackdogs*

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Good read, really exposes the PA for more terrible PR which has become par for the course for them. I wonder how they plan to recover lockout pay if a player were to cross? Would they sue each player and fight it out in court? Any chance the legal fees for that may be more than what they are trying to recover?

The PA's me me me me me mentality continues and they continue to be destroyed in the public eye. I love sitting back and watching them self destruct.
 

Lanny MacDonald*

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mackdogs said:
The PA's me me me me me mentality continues and they continue to be destroyed in the public eye. I love sitting back and watching them self destruct.

Really? I think it is completely sad and pathetic. Hockey players are the best of all athletes and are good people as well. Its unfortunate that those good people are getting dragged through the mud because of a select few. Mind you, the owners all get tarred with the same brush when one of them screws up (there are good and there are bad there too people) so maybe turnabout is fair play. But I really feel badly for the players who are being lead over the cliff by a raving egomanic because they do not have a clue how badly this is going to affect them down the road. I would love to see Goodenow, Linden, Guerin, Alfredsson, etc. nailed to crosses and suffer, but for the foot soldier in the association I actually have a great level of pity for them. They have been followers their whole lives that they don't have the wherewithal to stand up to these boneheads.
 

mackdogs*

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The Iconoclast said:
Really? I think it is completely sad and pathetic. Hockey players are the best of all athletes and are good people as well. Its unfortunate that those good people are getting dragged through the mud because of a select few. Mind you, the owners all get tarred with the same brush when one of them screws up (there are good and there are bad there too people) so maybe turnabout is fair play. But I really feel badly for the players who are being lead over the cliff by a raving egomanic because they do not have a clue how badly this is going to affect them down the road. I would love to see Goodenow, Linden, Guerin, Alfredsson, etc. nailed to crosses and suffer, but for the foot soldier in the association I actually have a great level of pity for them. They have been followers their whole lives that they don't have the wherewithal to stand up to these boneheads.
I agree with ya, they certaintly don't all deserve the crap their leader is dragging them through. I feel for the lower paid guys who need the $$ for house payments, car payments, raising children, etc. A lot of these guys don't have years of service behind them and thus don't have a huge bank account to fall back onto. However, like the owners who decided to hand out ridiculous contracts and essentially bring the NHL to where it is today, these same players will have a choice to cross the line and provide for their family. I sincerely hope they do. As the article mentions the average lifespan for a player in the NHL is only 4 years so I hope a lot of the rank and file members decide to make hay while the sun's shining. I'm sure some agree that their esteemed leader is doing absolutely nothing for them and are just waiting to cross the line later this year... once they can find an agent to help strike a deal that is :)
 

Jarqui

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"They rule by fear." agent

Sad but looking more and more as if that is so. Maybe the PA can recoil again slinking back under the "out of context" rock for the nth time.

Evidently, the NHLPA CBA position is not strong enough to bind their solidarity without resorting to these sorts of tactics. This sort of thing eventually blows up so it might be seen as a sign of progression - that there is an end to this dispute in sight as the union fractures under pressure - division triggerd by intimidation.

The PA's so-called philosophical "Free Market" is only available to those content or forced to stay within the confines enforced by Goodenow's muscle and financially punitive or intimidating measures. Some "free" market, eh ?
 
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mooseOAK*

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The NHLPA never put any of the NHL proposals to a vote that we know of but the league's threat of using replacement players will accomplish the same thing.

How the NHLPA reacts will show how the leadership views the solidarity of their union and the threat of having to rebate lockout pay is one strike against that.
 

Brent Burns Beard

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Feb 27, 2002
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cleduc said:
Evidently, the NHLPA CBA position is not strong enough to bind their solidarity without resorting to these sorts of tactics. ?
how is it any different than Bettman fining league and team officials for speaking out of turn ? if the leagues CBA position was strong enough they wouldnt need this tactic.
 

HockeyCritter

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You're comparing the proverbial apple to orange.

The owners knew upfront that if they speak out they would be fined.

Did the know players this? Did they know the PA would ask for payments to be returned if they elected to become a replacement player?
 

Lanny MacDonald*

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DR said:
how is it any different than Bettman fining league and team officials for speaking out of turn ? if the leagues CBA position was strong enough they wouldnt need this tactic.

Not so. I think the NHL primarily wanted to prevent an ugly storm of insults starting, like the players have done against the league and Bettman. The gag order was likely not to keep owners in line with each other but was there to keep owners in line with their comments about the players or Goodenow. If the PA was smart they would have done the exact same thing and instituted fines for comments in the press a long time ago. This likely would have been a very boring, and possibly shorter, work stoppage.
 

Ol' Dirty Chinaman*

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DR said:
how is it any different than Bettman fining league and team officials for speaking out of turn ? if the leagues CBA position was strong enough they wouldnt need this tactic.

Please.

The NHL fined their own for speaking FOR their cause, NOT against.

Bettman's running a tight ship. No emotion gets involved from the owners side and it doesn't get dragged into a war of words.

It makes the league look like professionals, not like spoiled children.
 

Jarqui

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DR said:
how is it any different than Bettman fining league and team officials for speaking out of turn ? if the leagues CBA position was strong enough they wouldnt need this tactic.

When an NHLPA players shoots off his mouth, it is "out of context". The consequences of the NHLPA player seem rather incidental if he were to say "shucks, I'm sorry". When an owner shoots off his mouth, he is exposed to being fined by the NHL but that's not all. The consequences for the NHL owners can be rather nasty regardless of owner apology : a successful claim of "bad faith" or "unfair labor practice" that can lead to mega millions in losses for his fellow owners who said nothing.

Further, in Goodenow's case, the Goodenow "free market" philosophy exists only as long as one doesn't elect to exercise their freedom to choose an alternative. Evidently, the freedom to contemplate that is curtailed with intimidation and financially punitive measures.
 

CREW99AW

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DR said:
how is it any different than Bettman fining league and team officials for speaking out of turn ? if the leagues CBA position was strong enough they wouldnt need this tactic.





in the last big cba fight,Bettman wanted a cap but a few of the of the large market teams pulled the rug out from under him,going behind Bettman's back to reach a deal.


Bettman's gotten the 8 vote clause for this cba fight,allowing him to block a deal with just 8 out of 30 votes.

I think when Bettman shuts up the owners/gms who would compromise,he's doing it because he knows he has the votes to play hardball,he can hold out for a hard cap that doesn't have a luxury tax this time around,so why let those compromising owners/gms muddy the water?Why let the players think Bettman's position is being under cut again by those same large market teams?
 

RangerBoy

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BLONG7 said:
The players voted this guy in and look where it's got them...Bob Goodenow will soon be shown the door...and hopefully Gary will be shown the same door...

Didn't they vote to give Baghdad Bob $3.5 million per year in salary?
 

NHLFanSince2020

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ColoradoHockeyFan said:

That article sums up the whole situation up so perfectly and clearly.

How could anyone who is not morally bankrupt him or herself continue to be supportive of the NHLPA when their actions are so clearly displayed in black and white as they have been in this article?

To me, the legal action the NHL has taken is for the benefit of the NHL players who are unable to speak up for fear of the retribution that will come down on them from the (let's be frank) evil union leaders.

A very good piece of work by Scott Burnside.
 

Hoss

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Beautiful piece of propaganda. This lockout gets uglier and uglier. Nice to see how objective you all are. Hook, line and stinker.
 

ryz

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Hoss said:
Beautiful piece of propaganda. This lockout gets uglier and uglier. Nice to see how objective you all are. Hook, line and stinker.

Kinda like yourself going the other way? Hi pot, this is kettle..... you are black!!
 

Hoss

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ryz said:
Kinda like yourself going the other way? Hi pot, this is kettle..... you are black!!
I consider myself to be objective, the author of the article clearly is not. The article is an editorial piece designed to inflame those who consider themselves pro-player, and at the same time it has all the elements necessary for the pro-owner crowd to rally around. Propaganda.
 

mackdogs*

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Hoss said:
I consider myself to be objective, the author of the article clearly is not. The article is an editorial piece designed to inflame those who consider themselves pro-player, and at the same time it has all the elements necessary for the pro-owner crowd to rally around. Propaganda.
You seem to be alone on this one. You can call it propaganda but I will call it realism. Big difference.
 

Hoss

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mackdogs said:
You seem to be alone on this one. You can call it propaganda but I will call it realism. Big difference.
Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees.
 

NHLFanSince2020

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Hoss said:
Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees.
If you read some of the writer's previous work, you'll see that he has remained objective throughout the lockout.

What he recently wrote is, as was previously stated, reality.

Can't see the forest for the trees? Tell that to the NHLPA.
 
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