Collective Bargaining in US Professional Sports Research Paper

Collective Bargaining in US Professional Sports - Research Paper Example All the professional athletes employed under the NFL clubs and other clubs in the United States professional sports league are unionized to form a better bargaining power. This is in accordance with the requirement of the National Labor Relations Act that wants that any employer must unionize its employees in order to be able to bargain in good faith. The other terms and conditions of employment the bargain covers include division of league revenues, free agency requirements, players’ mobility restrictions, provisions regarding the drafting of players, disciplinary rules, among others. In this case, the employers are barred from making unilateral employment rules changes in regard to the issues required by the NLRA to be negotiated between the two parties-the employers and employees. Another issue that the National Labor Relations Board has found relevant to bargain about between the employers and the representative of the unionized employees are the drug policies that require testing. Therefore, for any setting or moderation of any drug policy, the union must bargain with the league. In this drug issue, it is reported that the NFL has a superior drug policy since it provides a comprehensive list of banned substances, keeps on testing players during the preseason, regular season, postseason and even during off-season, it gives the testing authority more discretion under the reasonable cause testing clause, applies beyond players to team personnel and provides harsher disciplinary to the violators of this policy.