NFLPA Plan to Decertify if CBA Can’t be Reached

March 1, 2011

According to sources cited by ESPN.com, unless a last-minute agreement that no one around American Football expects, the National Football League Players’ Association (NFLPA) plans to decertify by Thursday in an effort to pre-empt an owners-generated lockout.

The National Football League’s (NFL) current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) states that the union “in effect must wait six months to decertify if it does it after” the CBA expires, which will occur at 11:59pm ET Thursday, March 3.

If the union decertified, it will no longer be a union, and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) loses its hold over the NFLPA.

If the decision to decertify is carried through, the league’s owners are expected to claim that it is a sham and challenge it in the NLRB.