Players to Strike again before the end of season

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Reported by the Tribune Review Pittsburgh

Arena Football League players will strike before the end of the season if the league and players union can’t agree on a long-term or interim collective bargaining agreement, AFL Players Union executive director Ivan F. Soto said Friday.

“Without an interim agreement very soon, (a) work stoppage is definite,” Soto said.

Soto refused to set a timetable for a work stoppage but said it won’t occur this weekend.

“But I can’t say past this weekend,” Soto said. “The closer to the end of the season we go, the less leverage a work stoppage would have.”

Including this weekend’s schedule, there are nine weeks remaining in the regular season.

AFL commissioner Jerry Kurz said a strike “would be a shame.”

“I thought we had been negotiating in good faith,” Kurz said. “I don’t count (a strike threat) as very professional.

The league and union have exchanged contract proposals, but Soto said the league is offering a raise to $500 from $400 per player per game, with the $1,275 starting quarterback bonus remaining the same.