Yeah, but in how many other industries could workers tell the corporation that has lost as much money as MLS has, and is continuing losing money, and probably will be for the forseable future, that they aren't getting paid enough. Take the airline industry for example, to avoid bankruptcy, they routinely ask their pilots, mechanics, and flight attendants unions to take pay cuts to avoid Chapter 11. Take a small reduction in pay now, or take total loss in pay when the company goes under. In MLS, the players ask for more money. I wonder, though, how much of this the owners bring upon themselves when guys like Lieweke say that AEG is "committed" to MLS regardless the financial losses. The MLSPU knows its got a bunch of billionaires bankrolling the league, so hey, what's another couple of mil a year in losses to these guys. I've got no problem with players asking for a fair share of the pie if the owners are making wads of cash like the NBA or NFL. It just irks me that they want a bigger piece of pie when there is no pie. In fact, there is negative pie.
What? Why is the edit functionality disabled in this forum? It's crazy. Mods: Please turn on the edit functionality, and if necessary edit the post above/delete this one. Officials still pushing for Harrison stadium
But getting "paid enough" is entirely separate from whether the corporation is making anything. If a company like, say, Amazon doesn't turn a profit for years, does that mean workers should work for free? Of course not. Does it mean they should never ask for a raise? Of course not. Part of being an employee is the luxury of not needing to worry about getting paid even if a company isn't making any money. Employees are in business for themselves. "Fair" to me means that employees don't automatically share in profits, that employees don't have input into how the company is run, and they can be fired (or not re-newed) at any time, but in return, employees can expect to get paid despite business struggles. Obviously, this means employees (and unions) should wise up and moderate their demands if their demands start to jeopardize the very existence of a company. But even then, shouldn't the owners bear some blame for negoatiating such a bad deal? I will be very disappointed if the players' union strikes or asks for ridiculous things-- but given the outline of the CBA as we know it, I think they're very aware of how fragile MLS is. Again, to me, it's not "unfair" at all.