Player’s association looking strong
Courtesy Winnipeg Free Press:
Take 16 active CFL veteran players (two from each team) and put them in Las Vegas for four days and you have the players’ association’s version of our annual general meeting where issues affecting the future of the league and its players are addressed to no end.
As scary as this may seem, despite having player reps decide the future of the association and many league issues at 7:45 a.m. every morning after an evening in Sin City, from what I can recall, things are looking as promising on the labour side of relations as they currently are on the management side of this CFL partnership.
Speaking with CFLPA president Stu Laird, he was very proud of how the union has evolved and expanded since he has been involved in the CFL as both a player and the association president. Over the course of its existence, the CFLPA has raised membership dues only once in the past 20 years for its players and that was in the form of a $10 increment.
In terms of infrastructure, things have improved dramatically, as well.
Nine years ago, the players’ association for the CFL consisted of one seven-by-eight-foot office located in a gymnasium with one paid employee and a single phone line. Internet access and e-mail capabilities were simply a luxury this union could not afford at the time. Today, the CFLPA has five offices across Canada, four full-time employees, more than one phone line — thank God — and even our own website. So as the environment has improved dramatically for the Canadian Football League, so has the strength of the membership and union of the players’ association.
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