{"id":240156,"date":"2025-10-25T23:08:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T23:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/240156\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T23:08:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T23:08:15","slug":"wnba-activism-comes-full-circle-with-legislators-cba-endorsement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/240156\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA activism comes full circle with legislators\u2019 CBA endorsement"},"content":{"rendered":"

The post WNBA activism comes full circle with legislators\u2019 CBA endorsement<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The WNBA CBA (collective bargaining agreement) negotiation has been at the forefront of the league\u2019s, players\u2019, and fans\u2019 minds throughout 2025, even resulting in a flurry of boos from the crowd at league commissioner Cathy Engelbert during the Las Vegas Aces\u2019 Finals trophy ceremony. But the players\u2019 active fight for equitable pay, among other key issues, has gone as far as to catch the attention of United States government officials.<\/p>\n

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Over 70 elected legislators from seven WNBA markets around the nation, including New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani<\/a>, penned a letter to Engelbert and the league\u2019s leadership, petitioning for them to \u201cbargain in good faith to reach a fair [CBA] in a timely manner.\u201d The welcome support<\/a> comes after months of tense public back-and-forth between the W and its players, who have often led the way in standing up for causes that affect society outside of basketball.<\/p>\n

New York City councilmember Tiffany Cab\u00e1n, who is also a long-standing New York Liberty fan, spearheaded the organization of the letter, demonstrating how problems in the sports world can overlap with issues that regular people face and fight against every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all want to be able to take in a full season, but we know that they deserve to get paid what they deserve to earn,\u201d Cab\u00e1n said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt mirrors the fights that everyday working-class women are having every day when they\u2019re saying to their bosses, \u2018We need childcare, we need good health benefits, we need an environment that allows us to be present with our loved ones and values labor that allows you all to make as much money as you do,’\u201d Cab\u00e1n added.<\/p>\n

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WNBPA senior advisor and legal counsel Erin Drake echoed Cab\u00e1n\u2019s sentiments about how the unresolved CBA debate has an effect on the public that goes far beyond basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe league jeopardizing the start of the 2026 season \u2014 it\u2019s not just basketball, it\u2019s not just the players who would feel that,\u201d Drake explained. \u201cIt\u2019s their constituents, too. I think people feel that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the CBA negotiation October 31 deadline has been looming over the W for months, a new wave of attention was brought to the topic after Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier called out commissioner Engelbert<\/a> in her scathing exit interview in late September. Regardless of when people tuned in to the discussion, Cab\u00e1n is hopeful the spotlight partially provided by the letter would help encourage people to stand up for players who themselves have a long history of standing up for others<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care when you got in this fight, I just care that you\u2019re here. As there\u2019s more energy and attention being put on this WNBA [CBA] negotiation, you\u2019re going to see more people join the fight, and that\u2019s exactly what we want,\u201d Cab\u00e1n concluded. \u201cWhat I hope is that the message is heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: Candace Parker questions if women are getting fair shot at WNBA coaching jobs<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Olivia Miles doubles down on not going pro amid WNBA CBA fallout<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The post WNBA activism comes full circle with legislators\u2019 CBA endorsement appeared first on ClutchPoints. The WNBA CBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,11628,4233,9963,3460,736,729,3457,82,630],"class_list":["post-240156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cathy-engelbert","tag-cba","tag-collective-bargaining-agreement","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-minnesota-lynx","tag-napheesa-collier","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}