Decertification of the NFL Players Association would not prevent a work stoppage when the current collective bargaining agreement expires on Thursday.
So says Gary Roberts, one of the nation's leading experts in sports antitrust and labor issues.
"If the players union decertifies, the term 'lockout' no longer applies," said Roberts, dean of Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis. "You need a union to have a lockout. However, the only way for the owners to then avoid an antitrust judgment in court, to avoid being accused of conspiring to restrain trade by how they run their business, is to not run their business."
According to ESPN, the NFLPA will decertify if, as expected, there is no significant progress toward a new CBA before Thursday's deadline. Once the deadline passes, the NFLPA would have to wait six months to decertify.
Decertification would allow the players to seek injunctive relief against a lockout and begin antitrust proceedings against the owners in front of U.S. District Court Judge David Doty in Minneapolis. Doty has had jurisdiction over such matters since the current CBA was reached in 1993.
Doty already has a significant role in the dispute, deciding whether owners will be able to access $4 billion from their television contracts. The union appealed to Doty when special master Stephen Burbank denied its request to place the money in escrow until there is a new CBA. Doty ruled Tuesday that Burbank made errors and has called for a hearing to determine damages paid to the union and the possibility of preventing the NFL from accessing the $4 billion during a work stoppage.
No slam dunk
Roberts said decertification isn't a "slam dunk." He said owners will turn to the National Labor Relations Board to challenge union's move as a ploy to skirt the law with the intent to recertify, as it did when it turned to the courts to win free agency in the early 1990s. The owners already filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB, arguing the union has intended to decertify rather than negotiate.
