The United Football Players Association, the players union of the United Football League, has filed unfair labor practice charges against the UFL. The charges come two weeks before the season is set to begin and amid ongoing collective bargaining negotiations between the entities.
Among the charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board, the UFPA alleged the UFL has threatened to cut or discipline players over protected union activities, engaged in surveillance of player participation in union activities, denied the union access to league facilities and created new discipline rules to discourage union activities. In addition, the union claims Memphis Showboats quarterback Quinten Dormady was cut in response to his participation in union activity.
At the time of publication, the UFL did not respond to a request for comment.
The UFL, a spring professional football league, is entering its second season following the merger of the new XFL (which played in 2020 and 2023) and the new USFL (which played in 2022 and 2023). The merged league is owned by Fox Sports, RedBird Capital Partners, Dany Garcia and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Some notable quarterbacks in the league this year include Max Duggan, Matt Corral and Luis Perez.
Friday’s news is the latest sign of strife between the sides. On Feb. 22, all 24 UFL quarterbacks sent a letter to the league, calling the CBA proposals “unacceptable and insulting” and threatening to skip the league’s QB training camp, which they did. ESPN also reported that teams threatened to cut players if they didn’t attend last week’s media day, with the league later clarifying it to discipline, not release. UFL vice president of football operations told The Athletic at media day that everyone showed up.
“Every labor negotiation has its challenges and we’re going through what every labor negotiation goes through,” Johnson said last week. “You start with a big gap in the middle and you’re trying to get to common ground the whole time. Both sides have negotiated in good faith, we’re getting closer. But this (media day) is so important not only to our league but for these guys. It’s where we get all of our promotional production content. So it was important for them to know how important this is. … There’s a number of things during the course of our season that are going to be critical, and we are going to hold people accountable to make sure that they’re there.”
Johnson also said last week that he had no concerns about the start of the season, which kicks off with a game between the St. Louis Battlehawks and Houston Roughnecks on March 28. It’s not clear if Friday’s news will have any impact on that.
(Photo of Corral: Jerome Miron / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
