New lawsuit against NHL

[Tattac]

Interesting.

Report: Minor league players' union threatens to file lawsuit against NHL

October 13, 2005
TORONTO (AP) -- A union representing 1,300 minor league hockey players threatened to file an antitrust lawsuit against the NHL over a provision in the league's new collective bargaining agreement, the Toronto Sun reported Thursday.

sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=ap-minors-nhllawsuit&prov=ap&type=lgns


Am I the only one who thinks that this new waver rule is a bit cruel?

[blny]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I for one, regardless of how much AHLers are being paid, think that the new rule stinks. I don't like the idea of players having to clear in both directions. What should be a positive experience - being called up - is now a nerve racking one because you could be uprooted and taken by another team.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Oct. 13, 2005. 07:01 AM

New NHL deal limits AHL wages, call-ups: union
Minor leaguers threaten to sue
They're 'suffering injury every day'

RICK WESTHEAD
SPORTS BUSINESS COLUMNIST

A union representing 1,300 minor professional hockey players has threatened to launch an antitrust lawsuit against the NHL over a controversial provision in the league's new collective bargaining agreement the union says restricts the salaries of players in the minors.

In a letter to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Jeffrey Kessler, a lawyer representing the Professional Hockey Players' Association, whose members play in the American Hockey League and the East Coast Hockey League, wrote that union members "are suffering injury every day" that the NHL's new CBA is in place.

At issue is the provision in the CBA that calls for players making more than $75,000 (all figures U.S.) in the minors to be subject to NHL waivers when they are recalled.

The CBA says that if another NHL club claims the player off waivers, his original team still will be forced to pay half his NHL salary.

Since most players are recalled from the AHL, several players from that league argue that those making more than $75,000 won't be called up.

"This rule has the effect of imposing a wage ceiling of $75,000 in the AHL ... which also has the effect of suppressing wages for all players in the AHL," Kessler wrote.

Moreover, Kessler wrote that players who have been given the guarantee of a bonus if they weren't recalled to the NHL also have been economically injured.

Those players have had "their complete 2005-06 minor league portion of their contract rolled back by 24 per cent on the purported basis of the rollback provisions in the NHL collective bargaining agreement," Kessler wrote.

There are between 125 to 150 players who make more than $75,000 in the AHL, where last season the average player's salary was $68,000.

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