Tensions high as WNBA labour battle continues — and deadline looms

Tension is rising in the ongoing labour battle between the WNBA and the union representing the players, with the existing collective bargaining agreement expiring next week and no new deal in sight.

And the back-and-forth — with both sides taking shots at the other — ramped up quickly on Tuesday and Wednesday.

It started Tuesday morning when the head of the NBA, which partly owns the women’s league, said he was confident a new deal would get done and that WNBA players would get significant raises. But one of his word choices — when he answered a question about whether WNBA players merit a larger share of that league’s revenues — raised the ire of the union.

“Yes. I mean, I think ‘share’ isn’t the right way to look at it because there’s so much more revenue in the NBA,” commissioner Adam Silver said on NBC’s Today show.

“I think you should look at absolute numbers in terms of what they’re making, and they are going to get a big increase in this cycle of collective bargaining, and they deserve it.”

Trading shots

Much of that might have sounded good — except to the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), which shot back Wednesday.

“What the league and teams are really trying to do is not only limit the cost of labour but also contain it through an artificial salary system that isn’t tied to the business the players are building in any real or meaningful way,” the union’s executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson said in a statement.

“You know it’s bad when the best they say they can do is more of the same: a fixed salary system and a separate revenue sharing plan that only includes a piece of the pie, and pays [the league] back first.”

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Breaking down all the drama in the WNBA… in 60 seconds

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The WNBA then responded to that, saying it offered an uncapped revenue sharing model that is directly tied to the league’s performance.

“The comprehensive proposals we have made to the players include a revenue sharing component that would result in the players’ compensation increasing as league revenue increases — without any cap on the upside,” the league said in a statement.

“It is frustrating and counterproductive for the union to be making misrepresentations about our proposals while also accusing the league of engaging in delay.”

The Toronto Tempo are scheduled to begin play with the league in the 2026 season.

Oct. 31 deadline

The sides have had meetings over the past few weeks, including once in New York last Thursday according to a person familiar with the situation. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because details about the meeting were not publicly discussed.

They are trying to get a deal done before the Oct. 31 deadline. The sides could always choose to extend negotiations, a tactic used the last time the collective agreement was negotiated in 2019.

The players exercised their right to opt out of the current agreement last year with hopes of getting, among other things, increased revenue sharing, higher salaries, improved benefits and a softer salary cap.

The WNBA’s offers to this point have clearly not been to the players’s liking, although it is unclear how far apart the sides are in terms of salary parameters.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said at this year’s WNBA Finals that the league — like the players — wants a “transformative deal” done with significant increases to salary and benefits.

Tensions already were heightened in the negotiations after union vice president Napheesa Collier criticized the commissioner in a blistering assessment in her exit interview after her Minnesota team was eliminated from the playoffs.