Book your flights. Pack your bags. Cross your fingers.
“The CFLPA has advised all players to prepare to report for 2019 training camps on May 19, as scheduled, until otherwise notified. The CFLPA bargaining team is currently engaged in negotiations with the CFL and is focused on getting to a fair collective agreement before the current one expires on May 18.”
That was the official word from the Canadian Football League Players Association head office on Tuesday, just four days before the current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire on Saturday.
The underlying message can indeed be read as hopeful, and just as easily non-committal, which is a pretty reasonable tack to take in the absence of a new deal between the players and the Canadian Football League.
It’s a subtly different message from the one contained in a memo issued by CFLPA leadership to the membership on April 17, when negotiations were essentially non-existent and a deal looked like a virtual impossibility. Players should have read that missive while funereal music played in the background. The website 3downnation.com posted the memo in its entirety last month:
“Do not agree to book yourself to travel prior to the 18th of May, 2019. If travel is already confirmed, please re-communicate to your member clubs that you will be unable to travel until the day of the 18th.
“After consulting with your team Player Representatives, it is our intention not to work past the 18th of May 2019 without a new signed agreement. This is the date in which the current collective agreement expires. We continue to request the CFL meet with the Association to work towards a new collective agreement to start the 2019 CFL as scheduled. We believe it is in everyone’s best interest to conclude collective bargaining and reach an agreement as soon as possible. Having said that, we have informed the League that we as a membership are not prepared to move forward with training camp under the current working conditions. The CFLPA will confirm again to the membership prior to the 18th of May whether you should be traveling to training camp. Prior to that, it is imperative that we all remain united on our travel dates as per the above.”
So the CFLPA leadership has done what they said they were going to do and issued an updated advisory on travelling to training camp. Players coming from all over North America need guidance and it has been provided.
CFL fans are free to interpret that as good news, and there was an overwhelming sense of it in a majority of responses to the news on Twitter.
But the clock is still ticking. The two sides were committed to negotiating late into Tuesday night as stakeholders are left waiting for a definitive word.
“We anticipate hosting a media conference call later in the week to discuss any new details,” CFLPA spokesperson Jason Langvee said in an email.
It sounds like any other labour negotiation — headed right down to the wire — but the players have said this outcome has to be different than the previous one. Veteran linebacker Solomon Elimimian, then a member of the B.C. Lions and now a Roughrider, mentioned it on a conference call with reporters in April.
“There’s still a lot of distrust from the last CBA we signed. Guys who were around, older guys, understand that the last CBA that we signed probably wasn’t the best thing in our favour,” said Elimimian.
That was 2014. The CFLPA took appropriate steps to guard against a repeat of that disappointment, starting with a beefed-up bargaining unit, electronic polling of the membership to improve communications and a firm resolve not to attend training camp without a signed deal in place.
Bargaining began in mid-March and the players’ message has been consistent. They want to be viewed as a respected league partner and they want their concerns about player safety and long-term injury rehabilitation addressed in a meaningful way.
Though the time pressure is now elevated, and some players who haven’t received off-season bonus payments are likely under some financial pressure as well, there is no reason to believe the CFLPA has suddenly capitulated and is readying the troops to attend camp with or without a new CBA in place.
After all, the membership voted 97% in favour of strike action last month if it was deemed necessary by the bargaining team. The CFLPA said subsequently that players on teams in Alberta and Ontario wouldn’t be in a legal strike position until May 23, four days after players on the remaining four teams walk out.
The new advisory doesn’t guarantee a new deal before May 19; only that the membership will be able to act quickly if there is one.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
