“Crucial” Monday meeting on the collective agreement (CBA)the first in-person negotiating session since October to include players, made little fanfare over nothing, but early reports suggest the WNBA and WNBPA left the three-hour conference not much closer to an agreement.
After the meeting, WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike and Vice President Alysha Clark expressed their feelings of frustration. Sports at reception“Annie Costabile. Costabile reported:
Ogwumike and Clark expressed a sense of a lack of urgency from the league following Monday’s meeting, after the WNBA failed to come up with a counterproposal. They added that the time could have been better spent given that players have not had an in-person meeting with the league since the WNBA Finals approached.
The union, in particular, was dismayed that the league still had not offered a formal response to the proposal that the players shared about six weeks ago with the league, according to Costabileindicating that they would “begin work on a formal response to their proposal.”
Advertisement
On the absence of a counter-proposal from the league, Ogwumike said“They said they didn’t have a proposal prepared at the start of the meeting. That kind of set the tone for the conversation because we were hoping to hear otherwise.”
Despite their discontent, the players are not yet ready to go on strike. Talk to CostabileClark shared:
There are so many other conversations that need to happen before we can even call a strike. After today’s meeting, the issue is still on the table. Until we get a response from the league regarding the proposals, there’s nothing that we’ve been able to negotiate and go back and forth to even justify, “Okay, what does a strike look like?” »
It’s on the table, as it has been since the strike authorization vote.
According to ESPN’s Alexa Philippouthe session “was based more on sharing the feelings, philosophies and perspectives underlying each side’s positions and having an honest dialogue around those views, sources said, rather than exchanging new proposals.” Costabile also reported that the meeting allowed “players and owners to connect and ask each other questions.”
In addition to Ogwumike and Clark, players in attendance included WNBPA Treasurer Brianna Turner and Washington Mystics player representative Stefanie Dolson. While Senior Vice President Kelsey Plum and Vice President Napheesa Collier planned to attend, travel issues prevented their attendance. They, along with Vice President Breanna Stewart and Secretary Elizabeth Williams, joined via Zoom. An estimated 40 additional players joined the event remotely.
Advertisement
On the league side, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert was in attendance, along with members of the labor relations committee and other owners. Among the seven members of the labor relations committee, made up of owners and executives, Connecticut Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti and Seattle Storm co-owner Ginny Gilder were in New York, while Phoenix Mercury owner Mat Ishbia participated virtually. Clara Wu Tsai, owner of the New York Liberty, and Sue Bird, co-owner of Storm, were also present in person.
By CostabileOgwumike and Clark also contested reports suggesting shared points of view among the WNBPA executive committee. Clark said:
I don’t think there was any fracture. As ECs, the purpose of our work is to have these difficult conversations among ourselves, behind closed doors. Being able to digest everything, because it’s a lot. It’s complicated. There are so many things that are on the table in this proposal and having discussions does not equate to a divide.
Before the meeting with the league, the union held a phone call at WNBPA headquarters, according to Costabile. In addition to more than 40 players, political leader Stacey Abrams and AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler were on the call, offering their support to the WNBPA.
