The upcoming National Hockey League season in North America is still under threat after three straight days of labor meetings between NHL chiefs and the Players Association ended in a stalemate.
After the meeting, hled to resolve the collective bargaining agreement,
neither side expressed confidence in preventing a work stoppage, which would happen when the current agreement ends September 15.
"It is now September 2 and we have less than two short weeks before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement," NHL executive vice president Bill Daly said in a statement.
"We continue to be frustrated and concerned that instead of using the short time available to us to talk about potential solutions to our problems, we have been using it to revisit subject matter we have been discussing with the union leadership for the last five years."
The subject matter Daly referred to is the detailed information on the operation of each of the 30 NHL teams, which the union requested during last week's two-day session in Ottawa after rejecting six proposals for a new collective bargaining agreement that the league presented on July 21.
The union, which has not proposed a plan for a new agreement in more than a year, believed all of the NHL's blueprints involve a salary cap, something the league seems adamant on instituting.
"There has been no change in the approach from the NHL," NHLPA senior director Ted Sasskin said during a conference call. "They are still only interested in negotiating a cap system, which provides us for no reason for optimism and no basis for any real progress."
The NHL offered a different view on its intentions for the new agreement.
"We remain committed to negotiating a fair partnership with the players that
will make the league as a whole healthy and will provide all of our teams with an opportunity to be viable and competitive in their current markets," Daly said.
"We have presented six system proposals, any of which would achieve those objectives, while at the same time guaranteeing the players more than 50 percent of our revenues and maintaining an average player salary of 1.3 million-dollars. Those proposals were summarily rejected by union leadership."
Saskin said the two sides will meet again next week, when the union is expected to make its first proposal.
"We are anxious to see how a new union proposal would ensure the elimination of the hundreds of millions of dollars in losses that we are presently incurring under the current collective bargaining agreement and cannot afford," Daly said.
"We would also hope that the union leadership would be committed enough in its stated desire to meaningfully address our problems that it would stand behind any proposal that might be made with definitive assurances that our objectives will be achieved."
After the meeting, hled to resolve the collective bargaining agreement,
neither side expressed confidence in preventing a work stoppage, which would happen when the current agreement ends September 15.
"It is now September 2 and we have less than two short weeks before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement," NHL executive vice president Bill Daly said in a statement.
"We continue to be frustrated and concerned that instead of using the short time available to us to talk about potential solutions to our problems, we have been using it to revisit subject matter we have been discussing with the union leadership for the last five years."
The subject matter Daly referred to is the detailed information on the operation of each of the 30 NHL teams, which the union requested during last week's two-day session in Ottawa after rejecting six proposals for a new collective bargaining agreement that the league presented on July 21.
The union, which has not proposed a plan for a new agreement in more than a year, believed all of the NHL's blueprints involve a salary cap, something the league seems adamant on instituting.
"There has been no change in the approach from the NHL," NHLPA senior director Ted Sasskin said during a conference call. "They are still only interested in negotiating a cap system, which provides us for no reason for optimism and no basis for any real progress."
The NHL offered a different view on its intentions for the new agreement.
"We remain committed to negotiating a fair partnership with the players that
will make the league as a whole healthy and will provide all of our teams with an opportunity to be viable and competitive in their current markets," Daly said.
"We have presented six system proposals, any of which would achieve those objectives, while at the same time guaranteeing the players more than 50 percent of our revenues and maintaining an average player salary of 1.3 million-dollars. Those proposals were summarily rejected by union leadership."
Saskin said the two sides will meet again next week, when the union is expected to make its first proposal.
"We are anxious to see how a new union proposal would ensure the elimination of the hundreds of millions of dollars in losses that we are presently incurring under the current collective bargaining agreement and cannot afford," Daly said.
"We would also hope that the union leadership would be committed enough in its stated desire to meaningfully address our problems that it would stand behind any proposal that might be made with definitive assurances that our objectives will be achieved."
