Labor & Employment Law

Last Super Bowl? Block the Lockout

By Mike Hall

If you are a football fan, savor Sunday?s Super Bowl, because when the Packers and Steelers leave the field that may be the last game in a long time. The National Football League (NFL) owners say they will lock out the players next season unless they agree to outrageous givebacks.

Even if you are not a football fan, you should be concerned because a lockout won?t only impact football players and fans. Stadium employees will be jobless. Sports bars, police officers who provide stadium security, restaurants, hotels and others who work supporting the game also will be hurt. In fact, 4.8 million workers will feel the impact, and $4.5 billion in revenue will disappear from 32 cities around the nation. 

The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) recently tried to get a clear message out to fans in a TV commercial that simply says to the owners, ?Don?t lock us out. Let us play.? But CBS is refusing to air the ad. Click here to watch the ad.

You can help the players get their message out by signing our “Block the Lockout” Petition. Click here to sign the petition. You also can sign the Twitter petition here or by tweeting: petition @NFL: I demand a #SuperBowl in 2012! DO NOT lock out football players next season, #LetThemPlay. http://act.ly/31w 

The owners’ lockout threat came after they opted out of the collective bargaining agreement with the NFLPA two years before it was due to expire, saying it isn?t working for them. But they refuse to provide audited financial information to explain what is wrong in a business that generated $9 billion in 2009 during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

On top of that $9 billion and whatever they made in this football season, the owners will rake in another $4 billion next season even if  there are no games, because CBS and the other networks that air NFL games have agreed to pay $4 billion to the NFL even if there is a lockout. In other words, because of CBS and the other networks, the owners have lockout insurance. 

Before you settle down to food, drinks and football Sunday, take a minute to show your support for the players?whose careers average just  3.4 years because of the physical toll on their bodies?and the millions of other workers who will be hurt if there is a lockout next year. Sign our petition and urge the network to air the players? ad.

Click here to sign the petition. You also can sign the Twitter petition here or by tweeting: petition @NFL: I demand a #SuperBowl in 2012! DO NOT lock out football players next season, #LetThemPlay. http://act.ly/31w

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 04, 2011 (boomark / email).