Texas Brahmas preparing for season despite players union strike

Training camp to begin as scheduled at NYTEX Sports Centre

Despite a strike called by the Professional Hockey Players Association (PHPA) which caught both players and management off guard, teams like the Texas Brahmas are continuing their preparations for training camp and operating on a business-as-usual basis. The strike was announced yesterday but apparently wasn't approved by the players, who voted in the PHPA by a very narrow margin as their collective bargaining agent last spring.

It seems that the story is the same everywhere; the players had no say in this matter, and they're not happy, regardless of whether they would have called for a strike or not," said the Laredo Morning Times' Joy Lindsay. "Plenty of players, coaches and general managers were completely unaware of this until contacted by the media, or at least by each other."

Following the announcement of the strike, PHPA Executive Director Larry Landon released a statement outlining the problems the PHPA has with the league and other reasons behind the strike declaration.

"On May 22, we submitted a new Standard Player Contract (SPC) proposal to the CHL owners modeled on the player contracts in the NHL, AHL and ECHL," the release states. "It did not contain any provisions which were out of the ordinary or inconsistent with recognized practices in professional hockey. Although we have repeatedly asked for the owners to respond to our SPC proposal, and although many promises have been made to us about a pending answer to our requests, the CHL owners have offered nothing."It is all too obvious that there is no willingness to negotiate even these basic contract provisions."

The CHL Commissioner Duane Lewis expressed his concerns in a press release issued today.

“We are disappointed that the PHPA has taken this step at this point in the negotiations. The CHL is and has been negotiating in good faith with the PHPA and have already come to agreement on many issues benefitting the players. Some of which have been instituted already. There are many critical issues to both sides that cannot be negotiated in a short time frame.”

The CHL and PHPA have met four times this summer discussing an initial Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Previous negotiations between the PHPA and similar hockey leagues have taken as much as 15 months to be successfully bargained.

“This is not a quick process,” said Lewis. “We have worked for 16 seasons to build rapport with the players and feel from their accounts in the past that we have been successful in doing this. To the best of the League’s knowledge there has been no vote of the majority of players to authorize a strike. We are confident we will be playing hockey on October 17th.”

Landon's memo to players included a request "that all players refrain from engaging in any team activity, (but) we understand that players will view this development on a case-by-case basis."

Some players like Rocky Mountain Rage defenseman Tyler Butler and the Mississippi RiverKings forward Daymen Rycroft have noted on their Facebook pages that they will be picketing. Others are taking a wait-and-see attitude.

Meanwhile, most of the Texas Brahmas players have reported for camp and are taking the whole situation in stride. Veteran forward Lance Galbraith didn't seem concerned. "I think the whole thing will work itself out" he said.

Texas, along with the home states of all but three CHL franchises, is a right-to-work state, which would allow players to compete regardless of the union's demands.

“Our players are here for training camp. Our players are excited to play,” Brahmas General manager Mike Barack told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “We are excited to play. We expect the 2008-09 season to proceed and we are excited about it...we are moving forward. The players are all here. They are skating.”

Image Credit: Texas Brahmas