Donald Fehr
Donald Fehr
Donald Martin Fehr is the executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association. He became nationally prominent while serving as the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association from 1985 to 2009...
agreement both change deal hearings house letter march meet middle obligation receiving sent side tapes tougher unfair
After the hearings on the House side in March and after receiving the commissioner's letter (re tougher penalties), we had discussions both before and after. There was an agreement that it would be unfair to change the deal in the middle of the season. I then sent the tapes of the (March) hearings to the players. I had an obligation to meet with them all, which I did.
clubs comments deal distressed economic equivalent fiscal hear landscape point surprised virtually
The fiscal and economic landscape is not at this point equivalent to what it was in 2001 and '02. And obviously, when you go into bargaining, you deal with what is, not with what used to be. The clubs have made a lot of comments in virtually all of our negotiations about distressed economic conditions. I will be very surprised if we hear very much of that this time.
expect financial hear heard kinds past widespread
I do not expect to hear some of the kinds of things that sometimes we've heard in the past about widespread financial distress. We'll see. It's not up to me.
among auto both bunch contract informal opening quite research sort staff sure ways workers
There's some informal discussions among staff going on and a bunch of research being done by both sides. I don't think it will be too long before we start. I'm not really sure we'll have some sort of a formal opening like the auto workers with a big picture. We're still quite a ways from contract expiration.
record track
We have some track record of working things out ...
business far last people prediction suggest
We were able to get it done the last time, but having said that, I am so far out of the prediction business and have been for 10 or 12 years that I don't want to suggest I know things that other people don't because I just don't.
agreement coming internal issues meetings relevant specifics talk
We never talk about specifics of internal meetings. We have an agreement coming up and we talk about issues relevant to preparation for that. We keep our internal meetings confidential.
agreement both evident failure far given interests reach shared thus
Given our shared interests and the association's evident willingness to compromise, our failure thus far to reach a comprehensive new agreement is both frustrating and disappointing.
understand
I don't understand one thing. It's traditional in this country, when someone is accused, to let him tell his story to an independent body.
expect gets hard paid
I expect it to be pretty hard bargaining. That's the way it always is. That's what we get paid for. That's what the commissioner (Bud Selig) gets paid for.
anybody bunch curious happen nobody plays start whenever
Obviously, I'm very curious to see how it plays out. Whenever you start something new like this, you never know what it's going to be like. You know a that whole bunch of things are going to happen that nobody thought about, and they're going to happen in a different way than anybody thought about. But you don't know what they are.
expect highest operating rather reported teams true
One of the things we'll look at is reported profits. You expect teams with the most revenue, rather than the revenue-sharing recipients, to have the highest operating profits. That may not be true in very many cases, and that's something we need to look at.
beginning closure everybody happened penalty
Obviously, we thought from the beginning that the penalty was excessive. Hopefully, everybody understands what has happened and we can put closure on this issue.
bad suggested
No one has suggested it was a bad idea.