The union said in a statement, “We look forward to our upcoming discussions and negotiating a new agreement with the league.”
According to reports by ESPN, The WNBA Players Association has informed the league that it will opt out of its current collective bargaining agreement, as allowed per a provision.
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Breaking: The Women’s National Basketball Players Association has exercised their option to terminate the current CBA. The 2019 season will proceed as scheduled.
The union said in a statement, “We look forward to our upcoming discussions and negotiating a new agreement with the league.”
WNBA executive council president Nneka Ogwumike of the Los Angeles Sparks wrote a piece for The Players’ Tribune explaining the players’ position She wrote, in part, that she wants young female athletes to grow up dreaming about “the league that I know ours can become. A league that has a fair and consistent work environment. A league that treats its players as the world-class athletes they are. A league that invests in its future. A league that believes in us as much as we believe in it. ”
The CBA was signed in March 2014 and ran through the 2021 season. While the opt-out will not affect the 2019 season, the union and the league will now need to negotiate a new CBA before the 2020 season, which also happens to be an Olympic year.
