NHL players now have 15 million comrades

NHL players now have 15 million comrades


Unions representing millionaires of North American professional sport suddenly seem very interested in the ideals defended by the major workers’ unions.

The NHL Players Association (AJLNH) and the Association of Professional Hockey Players (AJHP) announced their decision to join the powerful American autonomous unions (AFL-CIO) on Monday, a national union which represents some 15 million workers in the United States.

The AJLNH represents the NHL players, while the AJHP defends the interests of the players of the American League (Lah) and the ECHL. In AFL-CIO, professional hockey players find themselves alongside groups of workers such as airline pilots, postal workers, teachers, steel workers, firefighters as well as workers in the automotive sectors and mines.

But above all, by joining the AFL-CIO, the hockey players adhere to the Sports council that the powerful national union founded in 2022 and which already brings together the players of the NFL, the MLB and the minor baseball leagues, the players of the MLS as well as the players of the WNBA and the NWSL.


The new director general of the AJLNH, Marty Walsh, acted as secretary of work in the office of President Joe Biden. Former mayor of Boston, Walsh is also a former union leader in the construction industry.

This affiliation to AFL-CIO is interesting in several chapters. In particular when one remembers that when the Walsh’s appointment at the head of the AJLNH in 2023, his main challenge was to enhance the level of activism and awareness of its members compared to union issues. Because in the past, AJLNH was most of the time a dysfunctional union.

As an example, from the late 1960s to the mid -1990s, former managing director Allan Eagleson has frauds his members and abused their confidence. In addition to lessen the working conditions of the players, the conduct of Eagleson earned him a prison sentence and a radiation from the bar.

In addition, during the 2004-2005 lockout, Eagleson’s successor, Bob Goodenow, was the victim of a putsch orchestrated by some influential agents. This coup de force directly led to the implementation of the most restrictive salary ceiling in North American professional sport and has collectively caused players to lose several billion.

AJLNH membership in AFL-CIO occurs when the NHL players begin negotiations to renew the collective agreement that binds them to the owners. It also occurs when Donald Trump’s administration, who was very hostile to the unions during his first mandate, regains control of the political program in Washington.

Since the sworn of President Trump, the American administration has notably dismissed several managers of the National Bureau of Labor Relations (BNRL) as well as commissioners of the Committee for Employment Equity (EEC). Union organizations argue that dismissals that have occurred to BNRL paralyze this organization and already deprive American workers from their right to unionize or challenge abusive dismissals.

The unions see in these decisions a corollary with efforts deployed by allies of Trump, Elon Musk (Tesla and SpaceX) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon), who dispute the constitutionality of the BNRL and, by the very fact, the right of their employees of Syndicate. In Quebec, Amazon recently dismissed some 2000 employees shortly after a trade unionization process that occurred in his Laval warehouse.


In the end, it follows from the recent AJLNH approach that most unions representing the athletes of the major North American championships are now gathered in the same organization.

The athlete unions have always exchanged information in the past, but this desire to group together, more structured, is new.

Do athletes feel that their balance of power is crumbling in the face of increasingly rich and better and better organized owners?

A strike or a lockout does not have the same meaning for an owner whose team is the main livelihood compared to that for whom it is only a secondary company. And in the NHL, all owners belong to the second category.

Gary Bettman, the commissioner of the National Hockey League

Photo : USA today sports via Reuters / Sam Navarro

The owners have also shared information for a long time. Moreover, they hire the same law firms when the time comes to negotiate collective agreements. They thus knock on the same nails and create breaches. These practices have led to many employers’ victories since the early 2000s.

It will be interesting to see what will be the effects of this redefinition of the union organization in the coming years.

A banner announcing the Radio-Canada Sports broom: so hockey

Related Articles