Players Unions in Pro Sports

This rant is in response to the NHL which is very likely to strike this year:

I have no doubt that the most egregious abuses caused by workers unions (and believe me, they're definitely out there) are professional athletes. Workers unions were a necessary counter to over-demanding, under-paying, and dangerous work environments imposed by "the man". There's a slough of incompetent and overly-selfserving "mans" out there and the ability to strike is just about the only way most blue collar workers can "stick it to him".

Enter professional sports. Home of the most cushy and high paying jobs on the planet. The revenues professional sports generate are enormous so obviously the players have salaries to match. But that's not enough, and as Dr. Evil once said, why make billions when you can make millions (er, or something to that effect). Professional athletes got together and figured let's "stick it to the FAN" and demand more money by threatening to strike for a season or two.

It makes me sick to think that professional athletes can threaten to strike if "management" does not raise the league "minimum wage" of a six-digit salary the exact same way that a blue collar worker would threaten to strike if he wanted to raise his pay by a few cents per hour. The power that worker's unions give pro-athletes is the most abusive and insulting implementation of union laws in the country (and that's saying a lot). When will fans wake up and demand that this blatant loophole be closed?!

There is absolutely no valid reason that professional athletes, namely in the NHL, NFL, MLB, and the NBA should be given the right to strike. PERIOD