The United States women’s national team will not have the leverage of a potential strike in their upcoming collective bargaining agreement negotiations with U.S. Soccer. A federal judge has sided with USSF, declaring that the Memorandum of Understanding signed by both parties in 2012 constitutes a valid CBA, and that it upholds the no-strike clause in the previous CBA.
Court says USWNT bound by valid CBA, meaning they can’t strike
The United States women’s national team is bound by a collective bargaining agreement until December. Their Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint is still outstanding.
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U.S. Soccer filed suit in federal court in February after the USWNT union refused to agree that they would not strike. U.S. Soccer believed that they had a no-strike clause in place with the USWNT, while the players’ lawyers disagreed. Their dispute was ultimately about the ambiguous nature of the MOU signed by both parties in 2012, but Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman said the players’ union did not convince her that the no-strike clause from the previous CBA shouldn’t carry over to the MOU, which was an extension of the old CBA with some modifications.
The only way this affects the USWNT or U.S. Soccer in the short term is leverage in negotiations. The players were always unlikely to strike and skip the Olympics, but now they’re not able to use that as a threat to gain an upper hand. However, the players’ complaint with the EEOC over wage discrimination is still outstanding, and is not affected by this ruling.
