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Strikes and Lockouts in the NHL

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiation in the National Hockey League and open-heart surgery? One of them is long, painful, and expensive with no guarantee that you will fix the problem. The other is a well-established medical procedure.

As of this writing, it has been over 20 years since NHL owners and players succeeded in negotiating a CBA without a strike or a lockout that caused serious economic damage. (A strike is a player-initiated work stoppage; a lockout is when owners initiate the work stoppage.) At the beginning of the 2012–13 season, owners locked out players so that no games would be played until a deal was signed. By the time they ...

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