United States /
the American Football League (MLS) extended this Friday for one more week the negotiations with its players on one new agreement with which to deal with the impact of the coronavirus and warned that, if there is no agreement, it could decree a unemployment.
the MLS met Thursday with the Players Association (MLSPA) “To continue talks on how to address the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the league said in a statement.
“We are still a long way off, we will extend the negotiation period from 30 days to one more week to provide every opportunity to finalize an agreement.”
The negotiation period, which ended on Thursday, will now end at midnight next year February 4th.
If on that date there is no agreement on a new collective agreement “the MLS Labor Committee voted unanimously to authorize the league to terminate the collective agreement and institute a work stoppage“, Said the statement.
the MLS, who in December reopened negotiations due to the context of uncertainty that continues to cause the pandemic to expand, said his proposal to players includes pay 100% of wages in 2021 in exchange for a two-year extension of the current labor agreement, until 2027.
This extension would allow the league and teams to recover some of the losses incurred in 2021 due to the pandemic and would provide stability for future investments in competition, the MLS.
The MLS Commissioner, Don Garber, said in past months that the league stopped enter by 2020 about $ 1 billion due to the pandemic, which forced the suspension of competition between March and July, And another campaign with this level of losses cannot be allowed.
On Thursday, the Players Association had proposed extending the agreement for a year with some other non-economic concessions and recalled that in an agreement with the league last June the players had already accepted salary cuts in excess of $ 200 million.
“A job stoppage at this time and in this environment would be catastrophic for MLS’s position, both nationally and internationally,” the Association said. “It’s our sincere hope that it can be avoided. The players are ready to play.”
The start of the 2021 MLS season is scheduled for April 3, with the training camps of the 27 teams of the United States and Canada booting the February 22.
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