Cause/effect?

The lockout of the NFL referees has ended with the referees expected to be on the field tonight in Baltimore for the Ravens game with the Cleveland Browns. Not sure the NFL could take many more game ending calls like Monday's Green Bay Seattle debacle.

That wern't no touchdown, scab!

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has now sided with labor against management in one specific context. After a bizarre ending to last night's Packers-Seahawks game and Seattle benefitting from a controversial call, Gov. Walker now wants the locked out union referees back.

Player's in solidarity with referees

The NFLPA has taken sides with the locked out referees. In a letter to owners the Players' Association denounces the Commissioner and the lockout as creating significant safety problems for the players.

Basketball for Christmas

It appears the owners and players have reached a tentative agreement which may have the NBA playing by Christmas.

Basketball (not anytime soon)

The NBA lockout has already resulted in cancellation of the first month of games. For now, it looks like the fans, owners and players are losers, but the lawyers are not.

NBA cancels games

The National Basketball Association lockout continues. NBA Commissioner David Stern has announced the cancellation of the first two weeks of games. With no apparent progress being made the entire basketball season is in jeopardy. The NBA is not the NFL (which was smart enough to compromise without costing any regular season games). The NBA likely will take a huge hit from its decision to lock out players. Fewer people will care both short term and long term as this columnist notes.

Strike Replacements, Inc.

This piece is a brief profile on a company that supplies replacement workers in labor disputes.

In Court

The NFL and the players are in court today for oral argument on the lockout injunction case.

Locked out

The Eighth Circuit has handed the owners an encouraging win by granting a stay of the injunction of the owner's lockout. In so doing the court does a pretty good job of explaining how the Norris-LaGuardia Act prohibits injunctions of labor disputes. A labor dispute can occur even in the absence of a certified union, thus the player's decertification, in the court's view, did not make the Norris-LaGuardia Act's prohibitions on injunctions inapplicable.

NFL lockout and collateral damage

The NFL is big business and the collateral damage from a lockout would hurt more than just the players and the owners.

More decertification votes

Redskins, Colts and Philadelphia unanimously vote to authorize decertification of the NFLPA.

2011 NFL lockout

More on the issues between the NFL and the NFLPA, and the possible 2011 lockout. Former Saint Rickey Jackson makes a poignant assessment.

Strikers and unemployment benefits

We do not see a lot of lockouts in this part of the country. In the Temple nurses' labor dispute the fact of a lockout dramatically affected the cost of the labor dispute. Under Pennsylvania law strikers are not eligible for unemployment, but when the employer locks out the employees, the employees are eligible for unemployment. More details in this news article.

NFLPA poses 10

Mike Florio analyzes the ten questions the players union has posed to the NFL.

Manufacturer closes after lockout.

Peterbilt, a manufacturer of heavy duty trucks has shut down its unionized Nashville plant after a long labor dispute and lockout which began in June of 2008. Operations will be consolidated at its non-union facility in Denton Texas. My labor law class covered plant closure last week. I think I'll discuss this case tonight.