Continuing on the sports-related theme from yesterday, today's longread looks at labor conflicts in professional sports. Pierce not only points out the foolishness of the current approach being taken by the NHL and NFL in existing labor disagreements, but also contextualizes those within the wider landscape of labor relations in the U.S. Owners of sports franchises utilize the same techniques to try to snatch power from athletes that they do to maintain control over workers in their other industries. Athletes are better able to resist this thanks to their fame, wealth, and importance to the sport. Even with these things on their side, sports labor unions still routinely get the short end in collective bargaining agreements, and unfortunately, the situation is even worse for most American workers.
Thanks to regular reader Mark Chaikin (MHE81) for sending me this article.
"The Limits of Control" by Charles Pierce
Published on Grantland, July 23, 2012
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8191773/charlie-pierce-sports-management
Eric
I think the way these guys act is very similar to the issues we have often discussed with other areas (most often politics). It doesn't seem like the best interest of both parties is the goal but instead the focus is on "power" and "winning" when in the end it ends up an ugly squabble. There is no conversation or communication between the sides because both seem entirely unwilling to take part in a reasonable conversation.
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