The U.S. Soccer Federation filed a lawsuit against the union representing the U.S. women's soccer team in federal court on Wednesday. The USSF is allegedly not seeking for any monetary damages in the lawsuit, but rather, it's asking the court to validate its labor agreement with the USWNT.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that U.S. Soccer had filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Women's National Team Player's Association. Less than a year after the national team won the Women's World Cup, the team's union is being sued by their soccer federation over the validity of the terms of their contract.
To make matters worse, the lawsuit itself was released publicly and it included the home addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of many of the U.S. Women's National Team players. "We're public figures. There have been issues of privacy and hacking and stalkers," USWNT midfielder Megan Rapinoe stated.
U.S. Soccer is asking that a judge confirm the working arrangement is valid to avoid any potential work stoppages. Andrew Das expanded on that point and took to his Twitter account, "USWNT has worked under those rules without incident ever since. But union now contends it is invalid, and thus players (with notice) ... can begin labor actions (read: strikes). U.S. Soccer hustled to court for fear team would strike before next games, NWSL, Olympics."
The lawsuit is a disagreement that the team has a valid labor agreement, as U.S. Soccer contends. Union Executive Director Richard Nichols, on the other hand, has argued that it does not, as noted by The Washington Post.
In the lawsuit, U.S. Soccer acknowledged that the team's last collective bargaining agreement expired in 2012. But then the organization claimed that the deal lived on as a revised memorandum of agreement that was signed in March 2013 with the players' representatives.
The memorandum was to expire at the end of 2016. Moreover, the lawsuit also claimed that the U.S. Soccer "reluctantly" filed the lawsuit only after Nichols did not rule out a strike in a meeting with the governing body on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, if the court rules out that the current CBA is invalid, reports claim that this could things get worse as the players would have the ability to strike. And with that, it could allegedly greatly impact the SheBelieves Cup in March, the Olympics, and the fourth season of the National Women's Soccer League.
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