{"id":197620,"date":"2025-10-08T13:36:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T13:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/197620\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T13:36:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T13:36:04","slug":"the-uss-biggest-pro-womens-sports-unions-have-found-strength-together-nwsl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/197620\/","title":{"rendered":"The US\u2019s biggest pro women\u2019s sports unions have found strength together | NWSL"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the WNBA\u2019s biggest stars warmed up for the All-Star Game on 19 July, the message came through loud and clear. All wore shirts reading \u201cPay Us What You Owe Us,\u201d with the Women\u2019s National Basketball Players\u2019 Association (WNBPA) logo prominently displayed below. The visual<\/a> immediately went viral, drawing attention to the union\u2019s ongoing<\/a> negotiations with the league for a new collective bargaining agreement.<\/p>\n

Had the messaging started and ended with those shirts, it would have been notable, but limited in scope. Instead, a continuing campaign became just one example of the ways the two most prominent women\u2019s players\u2019 unions in the US have worked together to advance their causes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re fighting for something historic, something that has never been done before, it cannot happen in a vacuum,\u201d said Erin D Drake, the WNBPA\u2019s senior advisor and legal counsel who was credited<\/a> for the shirt campaign, which sought to get as many other people and organizations involved as possible.<\/p>\n

To that end, the shirts were made available to buy online by the end of the All-Star Game, and soon the WNBPA\u2019s soccer counterparts were customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of our staff had already gone on the website and purchased the shirts themselves,\u201d said Tori Huster, the deputy executive director of the National Women\u2019s Soccer League Players\u2019 Association (NWSLPA), adding that a stream of player requests followed. The two unions got to talking, and soon afterward the NWSLPA asked its members to indicate if they wanted to be sent a shirt reading \u201cPay Them What You Owe Them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a quick yes,\u201d Haley Hopkins, president of the NWSLPA, said of her teammates at the Kansas City Current. There was no top-down directive about when to wear the shirts, so the players decided to make their statement before the team\u2019s home match against the Washington Spirit on 13 September.<\/p>\n

The NWSLPA was quick to amplify<\/a> images<\/a> of those players, even as the Current and NWSL broadcast partners did not (the Current did not respond to the Guardian when asked why the players were not featured. Their post was a joint post with ION NWSL\u2019s Instagram account, and Scripps, which owns ION, also did not provide a reason when asked).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just female athletes in the W that are experiencing this,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cIt\u2019s a message to send for virtually every female athlete across the United States in whatever league it may be that we deserve pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides, not speaking out about the issue would have been a break from how the unions\u2019 relationship has grown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always in constant support of each other. Wearing the t-shirts was just an expression of that relationship,\u201d Hopkins said.<\/p>\n

Current players arrived for their game on 13 September wearing versions of the WNBPA\u2019s shirt. Photograph: Jay Biggerstaff\/NWSL\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In many ways, the WNBPA, which was founded in 1998, set an example for the NWSLPA, which came along in 2017. WNBA players have a storied history of activism<\/a>, speaking out against racist systems, police violence, discrimination against transgender people, and other issues. \u201cTheir collective action, their advocacy, for sure has been a shining example of what we aspire to be,\u201d Huster said.<\/p>\n

When the NWSLPA was in its infancy, its leaders \u201cwere like, Googling what labor unions were,\u201d said Huster. Meghann Burke, the organization\u2019s executive director, was its only full-time staff member at the beginning. During that time, her relationship with her WNBPA counterpart Terri Carmichael Jackson was the main conduit between the unions. Now more folks from both teams are in touch, with Huster and Drake especially connected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s probably not a month that goes by without Erin and I communicating about something,\u201d Huster said.<\/p>\n

The early asymmetry has shifted into solidarity. \u201cOver time, as our union has grown in strength,\u201d Burke said, \u201cthat\u2019s become a relationship of reciprocity and mutuality.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a relationship that has shown itself in joint public actions. In 2022, when the NWSLPA led a joint investigation<\/a> with the NWSL into abuse in the league, Jackson sat on the oversight committee with Burke and others. \u201cTerri was really important to us in course-correcting the league and creating a new standard for player safety in the NWSL,\u201d said Burke. In December 2024, when players from the Chicago Sky and Chicago Stars, as well as Burke, testified<\/a> in an Illinois hearing about House Bill 5841, there was communication between the unions in organizing that appearance. Behind the scenes, the unions have worked together to organize educational programs for players across both leagues.<\/p>\n

Solidarity is an ethos as well as a strategy for the unions. Unions believe workers are stronger together in the face of corporate interests \u2013 why shouldn\u2019t that logic extend to solidarity between unions themselves?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tactic to be divided. It\u2019s a tactic to feel in isolation when you are trying to assert your value and your worth,\u201d Drake said, adding that both the WNBPA and NWSLPA reject that tactic.<\/p>\n

Solidarity, of course, doesn\u2019t mean that the unions operate in total synchrony. But they have more than enough in common to make collaboration useful.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur orientation to the issues that affect workers is certainly grounded in our experience as women,\u201d said Burke. Shared priorities like ensuring protections for mothers, overcoming underinvestment, and securing healthy work environments and fair compensation drive both unions.<\/p>\n

Another commonality is the unions\u2019 relative youth compared to their equivalents in the NBA (1954), NFL (1956), MLB (1966), and NHL (1967).<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you have an emerging league, a newer league, it\u2019s more challenging, and by definition, the union is going to have typically less strength and a more difficult time,\u201d said Nellie Drew, a professor in sports law at the University at Buffalo School of Law. \u201c[That] is why it\u2019s especially important now for these two unions to collaborate and to assist each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As the organizations\u2019 working relationship has grown, so has its importance during the United States\u2019 current political climate. The unions issued a joint statement<\/a> opposing federal immigration raids earlier this year \u2013 a result of WNBPA members asking their union to speak out.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of our statements \u2013 all of them \u2013 come from our player leadership,\u201d Drake said. She added: \u201cIt was clear through conversations that NWSLPA members were having similar observations.\u201d Thus, the WNBPA invited the NWSLPA to be a part of the statement. The NWSLPA, which has a sizable international membership and a deep understanding that soccer is global, jumped on board.<\/p>\n

The unions\u2019 connection to national politics also arises due to their membership in the AFL-CIO Sports Council \u2013 a group of players\u2019 unions within the largest federation of labor unions in the United States. That organization recently brought a big issue to the unions\u2019 attention: The Student Compensation and Opportunity for Revenue Equity (Score) Act.<\/p>\n

Burke told the Guardian that all the unions in the council had concerns that the federal bill would \u201cprevent workers from organizing and create anti-trust exemptions for the NCAA.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the WNBPA and NWSLPA were also concerned about the Score Act\u2019s implications for Title IX \u2013 the 1972 law that prohibited sex-based discrimination in federally-funded educational programs. Title IX was not mentioned in the bill, which aims to codify Name, Likeness, and Image (NIL) policies, opening the possibility that sex-based discrimination could occur at federally-funded schools with sponsorship money in the balance.<\/p>\n

In July, the Democratic Women\u2019s Caucus sent a letter<\/a> to members of congress associated with the bill, and a couple months later, Burke and Drake spoke about the issue in a congressional briefing hosted by the caucus. \u201cFor this briefing, the NWSLPA came to us, and asked us to participate, and that was a no-brainer because at the end of the day, regardless of what the text of the proposed SCORE Act says, Title IX is not contemplated within the bill,\u201d Drake told the Guardian, \u201cand that is a death blow to to all of us, frankly, because we wouldn\u2019t be here if it were not for Title IX.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fan support for increased pay for players has been a trend in both the WNBA and NWSL. Photograph: Angelina Katsanis\/AP<\/p>\n

The shirts may have gotten headlines, but both unions know that the attention ultimately serves the greater purpose of winning better conditions in their CBAs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can see the NWSLPA standing with the WNBPA during this contract fight because they know what it means to fight for respect on the job, for fair pay, and for a share in the massive profit their labor generates,\u201d said Liz Shuler, the president of the AFL-CIO.<\/p>\n

Indeed, leaders from both unions said that the unions\u2019 CBAs are always in conversation. \u201cI\u2019m sure the WNBPA is looking at our most recent CBA and some of the provisions that we secured \u2026 and trying to improve on that,\u201d Burke said, a sentiment echoed by Drake. \u201cAnd similarly, whatever wins they are able to secure in their next CBA, we\u2019ll be looking to that when we\u2019re in negotiations next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drew emphasized that while the negotiations the unions have with their leagues will naturally have some differences, the conversations likely look somewhat similar. \u201cThey\u2019re not apples and oranges; they\u2019re like maybe different types of apples, if you will,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons the WNBPA\u2019s CBA negotiations are especially critical this year is the increasing attention and revenue coming to the WNBA<\/a>, part of a larger trend in women\u2019s sports. The greater funding and attention, however, hasn\u2019t dampened the unions\u2019 desire to work together \u2013 if anything, it\u2019s only strengthened it. Huster said it\u2019s imperative that as \u201cthe investment in women\u2019s sports continues to rise, and this momentum that everyone keeps talking about \u2013 that we don\u2019t forget what is at the center of that. And I think both of our organizations would agree that that\u2019s the players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huster also mentioned that it was especially notable that Kansas City Current players wore the shirts, as the team\u2019s owners, Angie and Chris Long, have shown interest<\/a> in bringing a WNBA team to the city. \u201cIt\u2019s really important that that ownership group knows that we\u2019re well in it in our relationship with the WNBPA, and that it\u2019s definitely important to us that professional athletes are at the forefront of any conversation that\u2019s being had,\u201d Huster said.<\/p>\n

For Hopkins, the rising attention also doesn\u2019t change things too much.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always been here, and now everyone\u2019s kind of just catching on, and we\u2019re not just gonna be grateful for that quote unquote momentum, but continuing to build off of us to work towards what we know we deserve and have always deserved,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cIt\u2019s just now there\u2019s eyes on us \u2013 about damn time.\u201d<\/p>\n