U.S. Disallows Women's Soccer Strike (2016)
Fri Jun 03, 2016
Image: The U.S. soccer team poses for a group photo before their international friendly soccer match against the Japan in Commerce City, Colorado on June 2nd, 2016. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey) [komonews.com]
On this day in 2016, a U.S. federal judge sided with U.S. Soccer, ruling that the national women's soccer team would not be allowed to strike, despite their no-strike collective bargaining agreement expiring four years prior.
The women's team was scheduled to perform in that year's summer Olympics, and the ruling prevented the possibility of using the opportunity to strike.
The mere possibility of this work stoppage led U.S. Soccer to file a complaint in early February, seeking a court order to prevent a potential strike. As a result of the ruling, the players were compelled to work under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement that dated back to 2005.
- Date: 2016-06-03
- Learn More: www.npr.org, libcom.org.
- Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org
I remember being pretty mad about this at the time. Iirc, the fight was ongoing because Becky, Hope, Carli, Alex and Pinoe (who isn’t pictured — I’m not sure why she wasn’t playing this friendly) had filed the initial EEOC complaint for discrimination due to US Soccer paying the MNT more than the WNT. Carli published an op-ed in the NYT that explained their position, if you’re looking for what they were saying in the press at the time. The case made it through the courts in 2022 and resulted in a large settlement with millions in back pay to the WNT and a prize money sharing deal with the MNT. It’s particularly frustrating that US Soccer was stiffing the WNT while the women were making the majority of their money from international soccer, rather than their clubs, and only started paying them once the NWSL et al started paying real salaries. It’s been a tough fight, and there’s still a lot of fighting ahead of us, but the gains this group of women made was real and substantial, and deserve to be celebrated.