06-06-2018, 03:09 PM
(06-06-2018, 12:09 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Not false. Employers have wide latitude under US and state law to prohibit workplace activity. Every potential infraction does not have to be listed for it to be addressed punitively. Quite simply if the owners punished a player for failing to follow league rules then the courts would absolutely uphold it. The CBA absolutely has a clause regarding player conduct and using the NFL to promote your political beliefs is certainly covered by that.
The PA will lose because there is clear and well established precedent in US law that employers can censure the speech of their employees while in the workplace, and sometimes outside of it. If you doubt me then ask yourself why Jamele Hill didn't sue ESPN regarding her suspension over twitter posts.
Employers have no latitude in a collectively bargained work agreement beyond the scope of the agreement. You are confusing unionized vs non unionized labor. The NFLPA has won many times over in court that changes to working conditions and terms of employment must be collectively bargained, this prohibition of how you may or may not protest would in fact be a change to terms of employment. Had it been there when the contracts were signed it would have been allowed but since it is not in this CBA they may not change those terms of employment. This doesn't fall under the personal conduct policy as defined by the CBA, this doesn't fall under game day procedures because those procedures offered no punishment for not following them when the CBA was negotiated. Everything else would fall outside the purview of the CBA so simply put, you are wrong no matter how much you want to believe they could have done something about it.
A professor at Harvard Business Law, Ben Sachs, who specializes in union labor laws basically said even the newest rules they just passed probably wouldn't hold up in court.
"The clearest illegality derives from the fact that the league adopted its new policy without bargaining with the players union. When employees, including football players, are represented by a union, the employer — including a football league — can't change the terms of employment without discussing the change with the union. Doing so is a flagrant violation of the employer’s duty to bargain in good faith."
