March 11, 2010
PLAYERS UNIFIED
League says talks productive

The Major League Soccer Players are unified and voted to authorize a strike, and the league says bargaining sessions have been productive. Sounds like a typical labor negotiation, where both sides can’t seem to agree on anything.

The MLS players overwhelming endorsed a strike, 383-2, if the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations aren't resolved by the MLS season-opener between the Seattle Sounders FC and Philadelphia Union March 25.

We're unified," New York Red Bulls player representative John Wolyniec said Thursday.

The players gave the bargaining committee the power to be able to call a strike, one player representative said.

"The players are ready for that if they don't get a fair agreement," Wolyniec said by telephone from Miami, Fla., where the team is in the middle of its third and final segment of pre-season training.

Wolyniec admitted he was "a little bit" surprised at the landslide vote "because of the sheer numbers . . . We're unified."
Players around the league echoed the unified theme.

“All the players are united and have a great understanding of what issues at hand are,” said FC Dallas’ Ugo Ihemelu. “The thing that I think keeps us all united is the fact what’s being asked for, the changes that are being asked for are not monetary. It’s more about respect.”

One player representative who asked not to be identified said he hoped a strike does not become reality.

"We don't want it to happen," he said. "At the same time, the vote speaks a lot."

It was not known which players voted against the strike. The vote was done on a team-by-team basis this week. None of the player representatives knew of his team's actual vote, as each player voted privately, a player representative said.
Teams asked to comment about the vote, referred questions to the league office.

"We have an understanding with the union and the mediator that we will not publicly discuss what takes place during these bargaining sessions," MLS President Mark Abbot said late Thursday afternoon. "Therefore, we were disappointed to see comments come from a number of players characterizing the status of the negotiations and the possibility of a strike.

"What I can say is the meetings this week were productive and we have scheduled an additional number of meetings. While I can't discuss what takes place across the bargaining table, I can say that the players' comments do not accurately reflect the proposals that we made to address the players concerns or the productive nature of the discussions between MLS and the union."

Abbott wouldn't say when the league and players would meet again.

Both the players union and MLS have agreed not to strike during the mediation process, according to a league source.

One high ranking team official, who said he did not have direct knowledge of the negotiations said his gut feeling was that the season would go on as planned.

Michael Lewis, Phil Stephens and Charles Cuttone contributed to this report