The Professional Hockey Players’ Association (PHPA) is teetering on the brink of a strike within the ECHL as negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement remain unresolved. This potential walkout looms if a consensus between the players’ union and the league is not reached soon.
On Monday, the PHPA announced that its ECHL members have issued a strike notice, signaling their readiness to halt play if necessary. This notice is set to take effect on Friday, coinciding with the scheduled resumption of games after the holiday break. The decision follows a vote held last Friday, where players empowered their bargaining committee to initiate a strike if progress stalls, according to PHPA Executive Director Brian Ramsay.
“Our members have made it very clear that they’ve had enough,” Ramsay asserted during a video conference with journalists. “Unfortunately, this is a league that would rather bully us than bargain.”
Negotiations have been ongoing since January, and Ramsay has criticized the league for engaging in what he describes as unfair bargaining practices. This includes direct engagement with players outside the negotiating framework, a move that has reportedly been brought to the attention of the National Labor Relations Board.
Ramsay did not hold back in his criticism, highlighting several grievances: “This is a league that has taken almost a year to concede that we should be entitled to choose helmets that properly fit us and are safe. This is the league that still supplies our members with used equipment. This is a league that shows no concern for players’ travels and in fact has said the nine-hour bus trip home should be considered your day off.” He further illustrated the players’ plight, recounting instances of players enduring over 28-hour bus journeys to play consecutive games on weekends, all while earning less than the referees officiating those same matches.
“This is a league that has taken almost a year to concede that we should be entitled to choose helmets that properly fit us and are safe,” Ramsay said. “This is the league that still supplies our members with used equipment. This is a league that shows no concern for players’ travels and in fact has said the nine-hour bus trip home should be considered your day off. We have had members this year spend 28 hours-plus on a bus to play back-to-back games on a Friday and Saturday night, only to be paid less than the referees who work those very same games.”
The ECHL posted details of its latest proposal on its website Monday, saying it calls to raise the salary cap 16.4% this season, with retroactive pay upon ratification, and increases in total player salaries in future years to pay players nearly 27% more than the current cap. The league said it has also offered larger per diems, mandatory day-off requirements and a 325-mile limit for travel between back-to-back games.
“Our approach will continue to balance the need to best support our players and maintain a sustainable business model that helps ensure the long-term success of our league so it remains affordable and accessible to fans,” the ECHL said, adding that the average ticket price is $21. “Negotiations have been progressing but not as quickly as we would like. ”We have reached a number of tentative agreements and remain focused on reaching a comprehensive new agreement that supports our players and the long-term health of every team in our league.”
Taking issue with the ECHL’s offer numbers, Ramsay said inflation would have players making less than the equivalent amount in 2018, prior to the pandemic. The league said a work stoppage would result in some games being postponed and players not being paid and losing housing and medical benefits that it pays for.
Ramsay called threats of players losing their housing if there’s a strike an unfair labor practice in itself.
“Consistently in the last six or eight weeks, teams trying to intimidate and bully our members, threaten our members with their jobs, with their housing, with their work visas if they’re from out of country — different tactics like that,” Ramsay said.
Jimmy Mazza, who played several seasons in the ECHL and is now on the negotiating committee, argued that owners do not know what it’s like to travel 29 hours in a bus or to be given a used helmet.
“The top level, you know that those players aren’t being treated that way, so why are they treating us that way?” Mazza said. “To us, it’s a little bit of a slap in the face with the way these negotiations have gone for a year, when only five days ago, we get a little bit of movement on a helmet issue when it should have been done a year ago.”
The ECHL, formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League and now going just by the acronym, is a North American developmental league that is two levels below the NHL, with the American Hockey League in between. There are 30 teams, 29 of which are in the U.S. and one in Canada in Trois-Rivières, Quebec.
The AHL and PHPA have been working under the terms of their most recent CBA, which expired Aug. 31. An AHL spokesperson said the sides are very close to a new agreement.
The NHL and the NHL Players’ Association earlier this year ratified a deal that ensures labor peace through 2030.
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