Done deal: CFL, players’ association reach tentative agreement

The CFL and CFL Players’ Association have reached a tentative deal on a new collective bargaining agreement, ending a players’ strike that started Sunday.

The league tweeted out the news Wednesday evening. TSN’s Dave Naylor reported the deal was for seven years.

The CFL and the CFLPA have reached a tentative agreement, subject to ratification.

— CFL (@CFL) May 19, 2022

The deal requires ratification by the players and the league’s board of governors.

When the league and the CFLPA couldn’t come to terms on a new agreement by late Saturday night Saskatchewan time — when the previous CBA expired — the union told the members of seven teams not to report to training camps when they opened Sunday.

The Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Elks had to wait to go on strike until Alberta’s provincial labour laws allowed them to walk out.

TSN’s Farhan Lalji reported the CFLPA was alerting the league that a Memorandum of Understanding was agreed to so it would end its strike. The strike was the first in the CFL since 1974.

Naylor is reporting details of the deal include gains for the players in terms of health and safety, small annual increases in the percentage of revenue players get from the league, and changes to the ratio — eight starting Canadians which includes one “naturalized Canadian”.

Naylor is also reporting Monday’s preseason game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers would get moved, with an announcement expected Thursday.

The deal puts an end to the saga that was the bargaining process.

In a media release Saturday night, the CFLPA said it had tried since February to get the league to the bargaining table in hopes of avoiding any kind of labour strife.

When a deal couldn’t be reached in time, the union told its members who could go on strike to do so.

“The CFLPA bargaining committee remains prepared to do whatever is necessary and to work as hard as possible to get to a fair, new agreement and get CFLPA members back to work as soon as possible,” the union wrote.

The league issued a letter to its fans and players Saturday night, laying out the terms of its offer. The CFL said it was offering salary increases over the term of the deal, hikes in the league’s minimum salary, partially guaranteed contracts, and a new revenue-sharing model.

Teams also would be given the chance to take an American player (but not a quarterback) who has been in the CFL for at least four years or has played with the same team for at least three years and turn him into what the league called a “Nationalized American.”

That player then would count as a Canadian under the league’s ratio.

“This is about you and your career, first and foremost,” commissioner Randy Ambrosie wrote to players. “That’s why this offer protects roster spots for our great Canadian players who mean so much to the CFL, it celebrates the veteran American players who have built careers here, and it includes increases for all players, including players paid the league minimum.”

Saskatchewan Roughriders kicker Brett Lauther — one of the team’s player reps — said Tuesday the letter penned by Ambrosie contained “misinformation” and was “a sign of weakness” on the league’s part.

Even so, Lauther remained confident some kind of deal could be signed.

“I just hope that we can finally sit down and really hash it out and get something done so that in a couple of weeks, we can not be worried or thinking about this anymore,” he told The Green Zone.

With no training camp, the Roughriders have been holding player-led workouts at fields in Saskatoon to get themselves ready for the 2022 CFL season.