User:Alaney2k/History of NHL labour relations

The National Hockey League is a professional ice hockey league in North America. The league's teams are private-owned and the players are organized into a player's union, the National Hockey League Players Association. The teams' owners and players have a history of several disputes, starting in the NHL's founding organization, the National Hockey Association (NHA) in Canada in 1909. By 1927, the NHL was the leading professional ice hockey league in North America, and it consolidated its hold on the sport, forcing other professional leagues to accept "minor" status, and the Canadian amateur leagues to accept NHL control. The players were controlled by the ownership of the minor and amateur teams and the development of control of player's contract rights.

By 1957, the players attempted to form a union, but this was broken by the NHL owners. The union idea did not go away, and by 1967, a player's union was formed under the leadership of Alan Eagleson, a player's agent. In the 1970s, the coming of the World Hockey Association led to the reserve clause being rescinded and the owners accepted free agency. Eagleson controlled the player's union until the 1990s, and under his leadership, the players gained several rights and improvements in working conditions, including no-cut contracts. Eagleson lost control of the union over scandals over collusion with the owners and fraud. The pension plan for the players was found to be under-funded, and the player's alumni sued the NHL, ultimately resolved in a settlement that improved pension plans.

In the 1990s, a more independent stance was taken by the union. Since 1993, the NHL has seen several labour disputes between the owners and players, including a player's strike and several lockouts. One lockout led to the cancellation of an entire season (2004–05). , the NHL has currently locked out the players.

National Hockey Association
Working relations between the NHL players and teams dates back to the founding of the NHA in 1909. The NHA introduced several concepts to the world of professional ice hockey, including standardized player contracts and a team salary cap until its suspension in 1918.

In the first season, the NHA had had to compete with another league for players and player's salaries soared beyond the means of the teams. In its second season, the NHA imposed a salary cap, limiting the salaries of player per team. The players attempted to organize their own league, but were not successful ultimately due to the control of ice arenas by the team owners. The founding of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in 1912 led to another round of competition for players and many players left the NHA for better salaries in the PCHA. Within several years, the NHA and PCHA made peace with each other, allowing the transfer of player contracts through a draft.

Founding of the NHL
A majority of the NHA team owners suspended the NHA in 1918 and formed the new NHL. Although this was a new legal entity, player contracts and contract rights were simply transferred to the new league. When the Quebec franchise could not play in the initial season, players were dispersed by draft. In 1920, the league then transferred those players "back" to the new Quebec franchise. Not all players accepted the transfers. Some left for the PCHA, and some were appeased with higher salaries.

In 1925, the first significant players' strike occurred. The NHL had increased the number of games in the season, and the Hamilton Tigers players felt that they deserved an increase in their salary commensurate with the increase in games. The players of the team played the regular season, then struck during the league playoffs. The league suspended the team and players, and named the Montreal Canadiens as league champions, having won the semi-final. After the season, the Hamilton Tigers franchise was suspended and the new New York Americans franchise was formed. The players' contracts were transferred to the new team.

The NHL grew in the United States and became the pre-eminent league in 1926, when the Western Hockey League folded. Although the NHL had no legal rights over the WHL players, NHL owners bought rights to the players from the folding WHL franchises. Most players simply accepted the transfer to the new league, although several balked and were signed independently. The new New York Rangers signed all of its players individually, while the new Chicago Black Hawks and the Detroit Cougars franchises purchased the contracts of WHL franchises and most players moved to the new NHL teams.

Other pro leagues were started in the 1920s, including the International, Can-Am and American leagues. These leagues regularly transferred players between themselves and the NHL and most players went along with the transfer. The NHL was considered the top league, it competed for the Stanley Cup, and players would often retire if they were transferred to the other leagues, many of which were in smaller centres and offered lower salaries. The AHL attempted to become a top-tier league, and wanted to challenge for the Stanley Cup, but this was denied. In the 1930s, under the Depression conditions, the other leagues accepted minor-league status in exchanged for financial support by the NHL. The wealthy James Norris entered the NHL at this time through the purchase of the bankrupt Detroit franchise. Norris and his family would eventually own two NHL teams outright and hold loans to the other two American teams.

The Depression also led the organizations controlling Canadian amateur hockey to accept that the NHL was the pre-eminent league. Junior-age teams became affiliates of the NHL teams, developing new prospects for the NHL. Players in their mid-teens signed their professional rights to NHL teams, and joined the junior affiliates. A 'card' system was introduced, which tied a player to a team exclusively, in exchange for a signing bonus. Senior leagues in Canada declined as an alternative for players. In the days of the NHA, senior-level teams were often more popular than the professional teams. In response, some of the senior leagues became professional themselves. The Quebec Hockey League had two cities, Ottawa and Quebec, that had dropped out of the NHL, and both had developed a strong following. The league was popular and successful enough in its own right, that several players such as Jean Beliveau were paid as well as NHL players. The QHL declined after the introduction of hockey television broadcasts, and several teams merged with the Eastern League and accepted minor-league status.

Unionization of the players
By the 1950s, the NHL was under the influence of, if not the control of the Norris family. It had exclusive control of the Stanley Cup in 1946 from the trustees. The league was regularly televised and the teams had mostly good attendance. The players did not participate in much of the financial success of the league. While player's salaries increased somewhat, they had fallen well behind the level of other professional sports. During the off-season, players would work at other jobs. No pension plan existed for the players. Players were routinely demoted to minor-leagues, where their salaries were reduced. Players could and were demoted for reason unrelated to play on the ice: disputes with owners over salaries, or even marrying without permission.

Ted Lindsay had a chance meeting with the leader of the baseball players' union. He learned of the better working conditions in baseball, pension plan and better salaries. At the 1957 All-Star Game, Lindsay met secretly with representatives of all of the NHL teams. The players, albeit in secret, readily agreed to form an association, and explored their options, including an anti-trust suit, and forming a union to collectively bargain.

The NHL owners defeated the players by turning the Detroit players against Lindsay, who was transferred to Chicago. The NHL teams also set up, and promised to fund, a new player's pension plan in exchange for not suing the league. The pension plan would be controlled by the NHL and not open to the players. The pension plan would ultimately be under-funded, often funded only by charity games such as the All-Star Game and series such as the Summit Series. The NHL alumni would ultimately challenge the NHL in the 1980s.

Working conditions continued to be an issue. Some players left the NHL, notably including Carl Brewer. When several players rebelled at the Springfield Indians, a young lawyer named Alan Eagleson would take on the owner, Eddie Shore, a former NHL player, and force the sale of the team. Eagleson's success led to the formation of the National Hockey League Player's Association in 1967. The players learned that they could demand higher salaries and did. Eagleson took many players on as an agent, and developed leverage against the owners. At the time, the NHL was expanding to counteract the threat of a competing league, and players' salaries increased. This was accomplished mostly with player hold-outs at the beginning of seasons.