Federal mediators will enter the picture tomorrow when NHL and NHLPA leaders meet at the familiar “secret location,” but unless these individuals possess the power to force the league to move off its hard-line stance that has both angered players and exasperated a number of team executives, their involvement will go for naught and the lockout will remain in force.
Similar mediation during the last owners’ lockout in February 2005 failed to produce an agreement, though it may have played a role in the union’s offer to accept a de-linked cap in order to save the season. The NHL rejected the PA proposal and canceled 2004-05, anyway.
The Post has learned that this time, mediation — which is not to be confused with binding arbitration — was first suggested informally by PA executive director Don Fehr to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman approximately a month ago. The union, we’re told, did not press the issue when the league all but dismissed the invitation out of hand.
Now, though, the league and union have accepted the invitation from Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Director George H. Cohen to inject third-party personnel into the mix.
“While we have no particular level of expectation going into this process, we welcome a new approach in trying to reach a resolution of the ongoing labor dispute at the earliest possible date,” deputy commissioner Bill Daly said.
Believing a deal is there to be had, several team executives have told The Post of their frustration with the league’s refusal to negotiate off the PA’s proposal of last Wednesday and with the NHL’s all-or-nothing approach to bargaining.
Team executives — with the apparent exception of militant Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke — have all but been eliminated from the process by the hard line Board negotiating committee.
The players, meanwhile, as numerous sources report, have become extremely pessimistic the lockout can be ended through negotiation, believing the owners will open the doors only if the union capitulates. That’s why PA leadership has been given the authorization by the rank-and-file to prepare for legal action.
In the can’t-make-this-up department, Guy Serota, one of the three mediators originally assigned to the case, was quickly removed from the assignment in the wake of alleged hacking of his Twitter account.