Where's the Players Association?

[eagles2win]

With all this drama surrounding the Sharks where are the players union?

Any other union where employees are getting the ass end of a deal steps and starts industrial action.

Something else that's been brought to my attention is that under work place health and safety the employer has to provide a safe environment for employees to work in and if it turns out true well guess what Sharkies have violated another thing(providing horse drugs would violate it) and Work Place Health and Safety don't stuff around.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Last I heard the 'players union' was funded by the league and News Ltd. Maybe it's changed in more recent times but it's not unusual for it to be conspicuously absent when player welfare issues are in question.

As to the OH&S, as with the rest of this mess we just don't know exactly who did what and therefore who (if anyone) was at fault.

(Of course, having no idea what happened didn't stop 91% of Fox viewers deciding it was unfair to stand Flanagan down!)

 

[globaleagle]

Last I heard the 'players union' was funded by the league and News Ltd. Maybe it's changed in more recent times but it's not unusual for it to be conspicuously absent when player welfare issues are in question.

Precisely. And they also have their office in the same building as the NRl who also pays for their rent.

This amazingly huuuuge conflict of interest seems to go unnoticed by what one can only assume is an indifferent group of players.

Again, I can only surmise that the players aren't funding their own union, or aren't funding it enough.

The recent battle in ice hockey over here shows that you need to be able to fight fire with fire or get trampled upon.

Whether you're ideologically for or against organised unions (12 year old chimney sweeps anyone) the players deserve better representation then what they've currently got.

 

[Av8r]

Perhaps the law has changed but it's my understanding that employees can only take protected industrial action during enterprise negotiations after approval from FWA. Any non protected action opens up employees and unions to significant fines.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

There is a host of anti-union laws in place nowadays but industrial action has always been political not legal in nature. It is all to do with the inevitable mismatch in power between any individual wage earner v the owner of the means of production. The only way working conditions and wages ever improved was by the workers banding together to present a united front for the purpose of negotiation.

Otherwise as GE says, we'd still have 12 year-old chimney sweeps. In fact, with industrial laws heading the way they are, and workers political leadership floundering as it is, those sweeps may yet be making a comeback.

 

[tookey]

Also where is John Grant and David Smith in all of this? No leadership at all.

 

[susan]

Garnsey,the head of the association,was on Talkin Sport yesterday for quite a while.He has hired a QC for the players to use for advice if need be and he spent the day at Cronulla talking to Cullen and the welfare officers provided by the NRL and also talking to the NRL themselves(he did say that conversation was pretty short due to legal constraints).