National Basketball Players Association director Billy Hunter met with investigators from the National Labor Relations Board for several days this week, reports the Sports Business Journal, as the federal board continues to investigate the union’s claims that the NBA has acted in bad faith in collective bargaining negotiations.
Billy Hunter Meets With National Labor Relations Board, Which Is Wrapping Up NBA Lockout Investigation
The union filed that complaint in May and amended it in July, after the NBA had instituted a lockout which threatens the 2011-12 season. The NBA responded this month with a bad faith complaint of its own on the basis that the union had threatened a “sham” decertification that would potentially allow anti-trust litigation.
The NBA also filed a federal lawsuit on the decertification issue.
Hunter’s route through the NLRB is a departure from how the NFL players’ union handled its league’s lockout. The NFLPA went ahead with decertification at the outset of the lockout, leading to a number of court decisions that played on in the background as players and owners hammered out a deal. Hunter is looking for the NLRB to agree with the union, open a complaint against the NBA and potentially seek an injunction lifting the lockout.
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