CFLPA says they’re not prepared to play under previous CBA, which could lead to lost games

It appears the under-new-management CFL Players' Association has decided to start getting their message out. Following Friday's leadership elections that saw Alouettes' guard Scott Flory elected as president, replacing incumbent Mike Morreale, the organization sent out a release Monday morning listing their full new executive team and discussing their plans for the contentious collective bargaining negotiations ahead. That's much more forthcoming than the organization has been in the last few months, which is a positive step, and there's plenty of interesting information in that release. Perhaps the most notable part is that Flory and his new executive (former Calgary guard Jay McNeil returns as first vice president and Ottawa centre Marwan Hage returns as second vice president, while Toronto centre Jeff Keeping is in as third vice president and Edmonton centre Brian Ramsay is the new treasurer) have made it clear they won't play the 2014 season under the previous CBA, an option some had discussed to allow negotiations to continue during the year and avoid a potential work stoppage. That could well mean that some games are missed if the sides don't come to an agreement before June.

What are the deadlines to keep in mind here? Well, preseason action starts June 9, with the regular season beginning June 26. Full training camps start even earlier in June, and the existing CBA expires before the first day of training camp. Those dates aren't all that far off, so we're going to have to see substantial progress to avoid missed games, especially considering that there appears to be a philosophical impasse between the sides at the moment on whether the salary cap should be a flat number or a percentage of league revenues. With the league and the players' association that far apart, it may not be easy to come up with a new CBA. Refusing to play under the previous agreement while a new one is hammered out is an escalation from the players' side, and it's one that does make the chances of a work stoppage more likely, but they shouldn't necessarily be blasted for taking this tack.

The key element here is leverage, and the players have the most leverage before the season starts. If they agreed to keep playing under the old deal, yes, that brings in paycheques, but it also means there's no urgency on the league's side to make concessions; their teams get to host games as planned and their television partners and sponsors get what they paid for. Moreover, that previous CBA was very favourable to the league on one of the biggest points of contention in these talks; it saw players give up their guarantee that the salary cap would be 56 per cent of defined revenues in favour of negotiated flat cap numbers. The league would love to continue under that system, especially considering that said flat numbers now appear rather small next to the new TV money the CFL's bringing in (something the CFL itself has recognized, proposing that the flat numbers rise). The players don't gain anything by continuing under that system, and they lose one of their biggest pieces of leverage if they agree to. Potentially missing games could be disastrous for the league, and so threats from the players that they won't play unless a new deal is reached should give the CFL some urgency in trying to strike a new CBA and perhaps even motivate them to offer some concessions.

There are plenty of further notable tidbits in that CFLPA release, specifically on their strategy and what they want in negotiations. You can see it as a photo below (click the image for a large version):

We'll see if this bold strategy pays off for the CFLPA, but it certainly has potential to try and force the league back to the bargaining table. There's plenty to support the players' case, too, as Cam Cole and Rob Vanstone have explored recently. It seems the organization's willing to at least communicate with the public more under Flory, and that could be important as well. There's likely a long road approaching before a new deal's signed, but the CFLPA now has a firm public position. We'll see where they and the league go from here.