208 Part 3Interacting Effectively
OB IN THE WORKPLACEHockey Union and Management Fail to Score a Goal
How could an entire hockey season be cancelled?In early February 2005, Gary Bettman,
National Hockey League (NHL) commissioner, was signalling to hockey fans through-
out North America that the 2004–2005 hockey season was about to be called off.^64
Hockey players had been trying to negotiate a new contract with NHL management since
2003, meeting 14 times in 2003, 14 in 2004, and 9 times by early February to try to
resolve their differences. Little success had been made, despite all of those meetings.
Each side blamed the other for the stalemate and indi-
cated that their BATNA—not playing any hockey at all for an
entire season—was more desirable than ending the dispute.
“Their [the hockey players’] outright rejection of our pro-
posal yesterday [February 9, 2005] I think speaks more to
the fact that the union is never, ever, ever, ever—under any cir-
cumstances—prepared to play under any kind of cost-cer-
tain, economic partnership, salary cap—you pick the
term—type of system,” said Bill Daly, executive vice-presi-
dent and chief legal officer of the NHL.
Hockey players saw the issue somewhat differently. “They
[management] have made it clear they have only one way
of doing things, and that’s through their hard-cap system,”
claimed National Hockey League Players’ Association
(NHLPA) senior director Ted Saskin.
The NHL and the NHLPA settled their differences in July
2005, and the players agreed to a salary cap, something they
had said they absolutely would not do throughout most of
the negotiations. The 2004–2005 season’s 1230 regular-sea-
son games were cancelled and there was no Stanley Cup
champion for the first time since 1919, when the final
between Montreal and Seattle was cancelled because of a flu
epidemic.Gary Bettman (left), the NHL commissioner, shakes hands with for-
mer head of the NHLPA, Bob Goodenow, after they finally reached
an end to the stalemate that led to the cancellation of the
2004–2005 hockey season. Neither man seemed able to celebrate
victory at the end of their lengthy negotiations.
Negotiation skills are critical in the
buyer-seller relationship. At this
open-air cheese market in
Alkmaar, the Netherlands, two
purchasing agents for food buyers
taste a sample of Edam cheese
before they negotiate prices with
the seller of the cheese.