6 Major Reasons You Should Care About the Labor Battles in Professional Sports

[Teamster Jeff]

People commonly write off sports labor disputes as “Millionaires fighting billionaires.” But sports labor battles result in some of the only nationwide, well-publicized discussions of union negotiations and union busting. This year's lockouts are particularly egregious examples of the latter. Locking out the refs “is like using an Uzi on a field mouse.”

Why should you care about these lockouts? Here's a quick rundown:

1. Lockout, not strike. A lockout is a decision by management to shut workers out of their job in an attempt to force their union to concede, usually on wages or benefits. It's easy to be mad at the scab referees who don't mind helping the owners make $62,000 per team if they break the union and get everything they want. But the owners are the true problem.

2. Lockouts are on the rise around the country. It's important to talk about the difference between a strike and a lockout because lockouts are on the rise , and not just in professional sports. This is a sign of employer militancy. Lockouts were once rare.

3. Safety matters. Those careers are short because players, particularly in hockey and football, put their bodies on the line every time they take to the ice or the field.

4. The owners epitomize the 1 percent. So who are these owners, anyway? They're the billionaires, not just the 1 percent but the .001 percent

5. All pretense of necessity is off. Did I mention that the leagues are doing great? Because they are. Like most of the U.S.'s big businesses in the years following economic crisis, professional sports are making money hand over fist.

6. A labor issue your anti-union relatives will understand. You know that your leisure to watch an NFL game on Sunday was argued and bargained and fought for by unions, right? That the wages you spent on that game-day flatscreen were argued and bargained and fought for by unions, right? That your standing as a member of the American middle-class was argued and bargained and fought for by 200 years of collective effort and sacrifice and blood on the part of folks just like you, right?

http://www.alternet.org/6-major-reasons-you-should-care-about-labor-battles-professional-sports?page=0%2C3&akid=9445.283119.y3WpYI&rd=1&src=newsletter716223&t=13

[Starry Messenger]

1. k&r

[nichomachus]

2. Owners are at the root of everything that's wrong with sports

They are greedy, fascist billionaires, who suck money out of fans' pockets and use it to promote their right-wing agenda.

This is why games today resemble nothing so much as Nazi rallies with giant flags, uniformed troops parading around, signing of nationalistic songs, and yes -- even in some stadiums -- post-game prayer rallies. I won't even turn a game on until they've gotten through the fascist displays.