NFL Players Union Goes to War with Scott Walker over ‘Right to Work’ Bill
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker‘s new “right-to-work” bill has, unsurprisingly, pissed off the state’s unions, but one group has surprisingly thrown itself into the mix: the National Football League’s players’ union.
According to the Lacrosse Tribune, DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the National Football League Players Association, joined groups in Wisconsin opposing Gov. Walker’s proposal to eliminate requirements to join or pay dues to a union as a condition of employment.
While Walker has long argued that right-to-work laws would be economically beneficial to the state’e economy, Smith argues that, for NFL players whose job literally requires them to tackle human beings and risk severe, sometimes life-threatening injuries, a union is crucial. “”If you are able to decrease the ability of a group of people to bargain collectively, you’ve won the war before the fight started,” Smith said, adding:
“It’s one thing to be in a negotiation room where you have a group of workers who formed themselves as a team, and whatever contract you get is the contract you get. Or you can play the game in such a way where you actually prevent or inhibit the ability of that group of people to get into the room as a group, and you win the war before the fight began. And that’s what right to work is.”
Pro football players for the Green Bay Packers make up only a tiny, yet highly visible, segment of union membership in Wisconsin. And a right-to-work law might not impact the NFLPA as much as other unions.
To Smith, however, the NFLPA’s involvement in the issues starts as a philosophical matter.
“Our guys work for a living,” Smith said. “And when it comes to the issues of working men and women in America, our issues really aren’t so divergent from theirs. Our guys want a safe workplace. They want a fair wage. They want a fair pension. And they want to know that they can address all of those issues as a collective team rather than being subjected to an employer who has a significant, if not tremendous, amount of bargaining leverage over an individual.”
While the NFL has twelve teams based in “right-to-work” states, Smith says it hasn’t affected the collective bargaining rights of their players so far.
[Lacrosse Tribune]
[Image via screenshot]
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