A federal court upheld a collective bargaining agreement between U.S. Soccer and the U.S. Women’s National Team on Friday, preventing a strike in advance of the Rio Olympics.
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The case pits the team’s union – the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team Players Association -against the U.S. Soccer Federation.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman granted a partial summary judgment to the U.S. Soccer Federation that upheld a “no-strike” provision in the players’ contracts.
U.S. Soccer issued a brief statement saying officials were “pleased with the court’s decision and remain committed to negotiating a new CBA to take effect at the beginning of next year”. The sides met twice in May for talks on a new CBA, but if a new deal is not reached by December 31, the players can refuse to play.
The federation previously warned that a strike could force the U.S.to withdraw from the Olympics entirely, hurting the development of the game nationally. But many players have voiced concern over gender equity in soccer.
The players have been fighting the federation over everything from playing conditions to pay, which they say highly favors their male counterparts even though the women won the World Cup, which the men did not. The dispute is far from over, though, with a new collective bargaining agreement to be negotiated.
This case is unrelated to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission wage discrimination complaint they filed, which is still working its way through the court system.
U.S. Soccer maintains that characterization is misleading because the men and women are paid differently under collective bargaining agreements and because the complaint’s allegation that the women generate more revenue is based on figures from previous year, when the team won the World Cup and went on a victory tour.
The sides have continued to meet in a bid to agree to a new labor contract. The U.S. women collected $2 million for winning the 2015 World Cup. Other points of contention include flights to games (the women fly coach, while the men fly business class) and pay structure (the men are paid per point earned in the World Cup group stage, the women are not). With bad memories of the artificial-turf fields used in last year’s Women’s World Cup still lingering, a victory-tour game in Hawaii was canceled in December after problems arose with Aloha Stadium’s fake-grass field (the USA men’s team always plays on grass).
The women also say they earn almost four times less than their male counterparts.
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Her ruling, however, does not end the bitter dispute between the Chicago-based federation and national team players, who have several high-profile supporters in the U.S. Senate.
