The NBA's Jacob Blake Strike is Just the Beginning

Last week, the Milwaukee Bucks led the rest of the NBA in a wildcat strike to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old African American man in Kenosha, Wisconsin. After NBA leadership and team owners agreed on a series of measures, from the creation of a “social justice coalition” to turning arenas into voting sites, the players decided to recommence playoff games. While some found their decision to end the strike disappointing, ultimately activists and union reps have declared the action a win for bringing renewed visibility to the labor movement. In fact, this is something that organized professional athletes have been doing for a long time. From hockey to basketball, players’ unions and work stoppages have been central to the story of American sports and many people's first encounter with the power of organized labor.

Founded in 1954, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) is the oldest pro sports union in the U.S. The NBPA has led players in four strikes, or “lockouts,” including most recently in 2011. That year, players went on strike for 161 days for a greater share of what is called “basketball related income (BRI)”— the profits garnered from TV deals, merchandising, concessions, and so forth. The 2011 lockout was the subject of "High Flying Bird,” a film from director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Tarell McCraney ("Moonlight"). McCraney told GQ the movie was about "how the folks who make the work happen are often left out of the big decisions."

Other sports, from hockey to basketball, have strong players’ unions that have been at the forefront of pushing for pay equity and profit-sharing. In the 1950s, despite selling out arenas, many NHL players were forced to work summer jobs after they were locked out of pension negotiations and underpaid for lucrative exhibition matches. In 1957, Ted Lindsay of the Detroit Red Wings and Doug Harvey of the Montreal Canadiens formed the first players' union in the sport, the National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA). Lindsay and Harvey were traded to losing teams, and many supporters were sent back to the minor leagues in retaliation. Despite intense pushback from team owners, the NHLPA still stands today, and Lindsay and Harvey's fight for fair labor terms became the subject of the 1995 film "Net Worth."

For professional football players, the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) was formed in 1956. Among the players' demands were that teams, instead of athletes, pay for equipment, and that injured players not have their pay docked. In 1971, the NFLPA was officially recognized by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The union's first president was Baltimore Colts tight end John Mackey, who said: "A hundred owners cannot entertain 60,000 fans and millions of people on a Sunday afternoon. It's the players." The NFLPA made news in 2018 when it filed a grievance against an NFL policy that required players on the field to stand for the national anthem. The policy was put on hold.

For some people, these salary disputes, lockouts, and other work stoppages in professional sports are how they become aware of their own power as workers. The NBA’s wildcat strike not only showed the power of organized labor, but made labor a subject for primetime TV. As labor reporter Kim Kelly put it in a piece for Mic: “Wednesday brought the power of the labor movement to the forefront of the national consciousness, and it also gave labor organizers the opportunity to urge people to realize their power as workers.”