CFL and players’ association in marathon bargaining talks

However, that doesn’t prevent the league and its players from continuing to talk past Tuesday and schedule additional sessions. The mere fact the two sides are still at the negotiating table and putting in long hours can certainly be seen as a positive sign.

Last week, union executive director Brian Ramsay painted a rather negative picture regarding the state of negotiations. He emerged from three days of talks saying the two sides weren’t “necessarily where we need to be right now,” in order to reach a settlement.

The league and players are now negotiating monetary items, which is always a potentially contentious discussion. And last week there was persistent talk they remained far apart on many fronts.

The CFL faces a threat of a partial strike at the start of training camp if a new deal can’t be reached by Saturday. Ramsay said last week without a new agreement players with the B.C. Lions, Saskatchewan Roughriders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Montreal Alouettes wouldn’t report to the start of their respective training camps.

That’s because they’d be in a legal strike position and have been instructed by the union not to show up.

Players on CFL teams in Alberta (Edmonton and Calgary) and Ontario (Ottawa, Toronto and Hamilton) have been told to report to the start of camp because Ramsay said they won’t be in a legal strike position until May 23. On that date, the union would be in a position to orchestrate a full work stoppage.

However, Ramsay has continually stated the union’s top priority is securing a fair and equitable deal with the CFL.

Contract talks in 2014 between the CFL and CFLPA were testy. Negotiations broke down several times and there was even a threat of a strike before players ultimately reported to camp and both sides hammered out a five-year agreement.

CFL players have gone on strike once, in 1974, but the situation was settled prior to the start of the regular season.