NFL Players Association decides to decertify

NFL Players Association decides to decertify

2011-03-12 06:12:24 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) on Friday decided to decertify after the union failed to reach an agreement with the league, NFL Network reported.

NFLPA said it renounced its status as the collective bargaining representative of the players and instead will become a professional trade association that supports the interests and rights of current and former players.

NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith set 5:00 p.m. local time as the deadline for the union to decertify. He demanded the league to provide 10 years of audited financial documents for the union.

Smith added that of the NFL agreed to do so, the union will agree to a third extension of the CBA deadline and thus avoiding a lockout. However, after the talks broke out, Smith said he faxed the necessary paperwork to U.S. District Judge David Doty in Minnesota.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the NFL and the players is set to expire at 11:59 p.m. on Friday. After that, the NFL can impose a lockout of players putting in serious harm then next football season.

The CBA was originally set to expire last week, but the union and the league agreed to push the deadline for seven more days. The union is expected to seek an injunction to prevent owners from locking players out.

If the injunction is granted, owners will have to impose work rules. However, it is expected that the owners would appeal the injunction decision, thus keeping the matter in court until past the beginning of the regular season.

The NFL hasn't lost games to a work stoppage since 1987, when a strike shortened the season and some games included nonunion replacement players. The current CBA was signed on 1993 and extended in 2006.

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