Negotiating a New Agreement (A): The NFLPA and NFL Owners

This negotiating exercise is set at the time of the 2020 round of collective bargaining between the National Football League (NFL) owners and representatives from the NFL Players Association. The six parties at the bargaining table (three representatives on each side) have interests—both conflicting and compatible—regarding the preferred ultimate outcomes as well as a strained previous relationship, which serves to complicate the bargaining process.

The exercise has been designed primarily for use in a negotiations course, but it could also be used in a sports and entertainment marketing class. The exercise can be used in both undergraduate- and graduate-level courses. This exercise can be used as a collective bargaining simulation, enabling students to experience the challenges of interest representation and teaching the fundamentals of collective bargaining, unionization, strikes, and lockouts. The negotiation acts as a rich class exercise that allows students to experience multi-party and team-on-team bargaining. It also provides students with an opportunity to engage in multi-period negotiations, as it includes three separate negotiation sessions. After working through the exercise, students will be able to do the following:<ul><li>Understand the intricacies of both intra- and inter-team negotiations.</li><li>Understand the importance of history and reputation in negotiation processes and outcomes.</li><li>Develop appropriate and effective strategies for achieving agreed objectives in a labour negotiation.</li></ul>

• multi-party negotiation
• collective bargaining
• team negotiation