WNBPA Director and Sylvia Fowles on WNBA Negotiations

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Transcript

00:00when you all opted out it was october 2024 i believe that was 300 some odd days ago now you're

00:06less than 60 days away and for those of you who don't know there's an october 31st which is a

00:10somewhat poetic uh date for halloween uh october 31st deadline with less than 60 days away

00:19um what happens after that well um on november 1 we either have

00:27reached a deal and we're announcing it or we have an expired cba

00:35or we have an expired cba and both sides have agreed to an extension kathy said that in um in

00:44indianapolis that you know the last cba negotiations there was an extension if you all were close to a

00:49deal right now it doesn't really sound like based on what the players have said based on commentary

00:54nowhere close okay

01:02i'll let you i'll let you finish you you were going on about what happens after that and you

01:06stopped at work well yeah well i i i love the question about what happens on october 31st or

01:13what happens on november 1 like i'm i'm going on october 31st i'm going to wake up on like the rest of you

01:18all on november 1 um but you know everybody seems to go from zero to 100 with work stoppage and there's

01:25going to be a strike and there's going to be a lockout okay stop people no just bring it down a

01:29little bit that's actually not the way it happens there's a process for all of this right um those

01:35aren't the automatics and when you heard me say when answer your question i didn't even use those words

01:40right yeah so you don't get to work stoppage until you know uh the union has held a vote across all of

01:50its members authorizing a strike like these things happen there are steps that happen um and the the on

01:59the league side of the table i don't know what their process is um their board of governors gets together

02:04like decides whatever and there's a lockout i guess i don't know but on november 1 i'm going to

02:11wake up and you know either we're announcing to the world the cba has expired the cba has expired and

02:16we're like whatever or we have we have an agreement we pulled some all-nighters i don't know it's it's

02:22interesting to watch and listen to your vibe and conversations because your players match that

02:28and even from the moment in october what you all have been saying consistently is that we are going to

02:33hold the line until we negotiate a deal that's going to benefit us are you and the players prepared

02:41uh to hold that line should october 31st come and there's not a new deal yet well let's go back to

02:48october of 2024 when we had discussions with our advisory team and with our player leadership it was

03:00what is this cba now where's the business right now where is it headed does it make sense to stay

03:06here stay in this cba because you know what's going to happen you know the end of the story or do you

03:12opt out but the opt-out question was twofold and this is important the opt-out question was do you do

03:18we end the cba do we opt out of this cba and are we prepared to stay in the fight for as long as it takes

03:26and that's what we said repeatedly over and over again that's what player leadership saw on their

03:32ballot to vote those that was the option do we stay in this cba because we know the ending or do we opt

03:38out and commit to fight and stay in that fight and stay in the negotiations and stay at the table for as

03:45long as it takes you had to understand both parts and player leadership had to go back to their teammates

03:52and talk about both parts and so to answer to your question yes they're prepared yes they're ready

03:58because that has been what our conversations have been for a year now almost a year so what advice do

04:06you give to players as somebody who's been a part of two of these and this feels like i mean all of

04:10these are big but this is like the biggest one yet because of the business booming understanding your

04:15worth um this is our job we go out there and do what we love but we also want to be compensated so

04:21understand your worth and fight for what you think is right