If the NFL Players Association decertifies, may NFL players bring ...

[KimWrice]

If the NFL Players Association decertifies, may NFL players bring suit against NFL owners for anti-trust violations for the league's salary cap and employer-imposed uniform salary rates for develop-mental squad players?

Question 2

Did the non-statutory labor exemption from the antitrust laws expire upon the parties reaching bargaining impasse?

[robbielu01]

Answer to Question 1

Yes. The exemption applies to employers and employees and their representatives bargaining to make the collective bargaining process work. The employers agreed among themselves to set and apply the 1,000 a week wage for the developmental squad players. Without the nonstatutory exemption, which would not apply if there was no union context in which the employers and union sought to bargain over wages, hours, and working conditions, the employers would be subject to the antitrust laws for wage fixing.

Answer to Question 2

Under labor law's impasse doctrine, most provisions incorporated in a collective agreement are held not to expire with the agreement, but rather survive until the parties reach a good-faith deadlock in negotiations toward a new agreement. Only after reaching such an impasse may employers legally make unilateral changes in mandatory subjects or take other action such as to lock out employees until a new agreement is reached, or to negotiate separate interim agreements on an individual employer basis. If antitrust laws are applied when an impasse is reached, instability and uncertainty would be introduced into the collective bargaining process. The Supreme Court did not agree that the exemption expired upon impasse of the parties.