JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An East Coast Hockey League players’ strike means the Jacksonville Icemen’s Friday night game against the Orlando Solar Bears has been postponed.
The Professional Hockey Players’ Association had announced a strike deadline for Friday amid ongoing labor negotiations with the ECHL.
After the ECHL released a statement Friday saying that “union leaders deprived players of the opportunity to vote on our last, best, and final offer,” the Icemen announced that they would not be playing Friday night.
The ECHL is requiring all players to go on strike.
“The union’s decision to force our players to stop working means that we have to postpone tonight’s game against the Orlando Solar Bears,” the Icemen said. “We’re working to have a team on the ice for our next regularly scheduled game.”
The PHPA says the strike stems from what it calls ongoing unfair labor practices by the league.
According to an open letter written to fans, complaints range from long bus trips and hectic travel schedules to clubs supplying used equipment. The union says it is asking for better standards for health, safety, and working conditions of the players.
Sports Attorney John Phillips, who has represented Icemen players in the past, said the team in Jacksonville is a pretty big market, comparatively in the league, so it’s a city-by-city issue.
“You’ve got small towns far apart out west, up in the north that it’s 10-hour bus rides. It’s a lot to get place to place,” Phillips said.
The union says negotiations broke down after the ECHL made unilateral changes to mandatory bargaining subjects and engaged in regressive talks. An unfair labor practice charge has been filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
“We are asking for basic standards around health, safety and working conditions that allow the players to remain healthy, compete at a high level and build sustainable professional careers,” PHPA Executive Director Brian Ramsay said in a statement.
The ECHL disputes those claims, and in a statement released Friday said that its final offer, which was not taken to the players by the union, “would dramatically raise player salaries by 20 percent in the first year, boost the per-diem rate, guarantee more off days, and expand the top-of-the-line equipment available to players.”
“We did everything possible to avoid this outcome, and hope that the union leadership will drop its unworkable scheduling demands, let the players vote on our offer, and make it possible for players to return to work,” the ECHL statement read.
A make-up date for the Icemen’s Friday game has not been determined yet.
One Jacksonville Icemen fan told News4JAX he’s definitely on the side of the players in the dispute.
“I think it’s more important that they get what they deserve,” Victor Zarrella said. “The union needs to do whatever they have to do to get what they deserve to be treated properly, get the right pay.”
The team said that fans who purchased tickets to Friday’s game may use that ticket for the rescheduled game when it is announced.
Those ticket holders who are unable to attend the rescheduled game will receive communications from the team regarding rescheduling a game to attend in the future.
The Icemen’s next scheduled home game is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 3, against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.