Player Associations and Olympic/Paralympic Sport with Don Fehr

Just like the National Hockey League has the National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA), some Olympic sports have unions that represent players within a specific league. However, there's no independent professional body representing athletes’ interest to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) or International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Don Fehr of the NHLPA shares the challenges athletes without organized representation face.

In this episode, we talk about…

Biggest differences between sport administrators like the NHL and the MLB vs. the IOC/IPC
Potential legal hurdles athletes face if they try to organize and stay home from the Games
Lessons from the MLBPA and other major player associations that have experienced success for athletes
Whether a sport must be a certain size before athletes can pursue collective bargaining
How Olympic/Paralympic athletes can take advantage of group identity
The disparity of anti-doping policies across athlete organizations
What role the US government might play in forcing the IOC to be less monopolistic
NHLPA’s position on athlete agreements and its negotiations with the IOC
How WADA’s anti-doping policy impacts NHL players

Memorable Quotes:

“The International Olympic Committee is in the entertainment business. It gets its revenue because fans, people want to watch the athletes do what they do. That's the only source of revenue.”
“Collective bargaining is not about reason, or justice or fairness or equity or what's appropriate. It's about leverage.”

Guest Bio:

Don Fehr is the Executive Director of the National Hockey League Players Association. Before joining the NHLPA, Fehr served as the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association from 1983 to 2009. He began work at the MLBPA in 1977 as General Counsel, working under Executive Director Marvin Miller who was credited with completely changing baseball by making the MLBPA one of the most powerful unions in the United States. In his first several decades leading players associations he was involved in numerous work stoppages, both strikes and lockouts, that have resulted in canceled seasons including in 1994 when baseball became the first sport in history to lose its postseason to a labor dispute.

Links to resources:

National Hockey League Players Association

https://www.nhlpa.com/

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