The Rugby League Players Association (RLPA) has written to team sponsors, stepping up its efforts to strike a pay deal with the league.
The letters were sent to the likes of Telstra, Sportsbet, KFC, Chemist Warehouse and Harvey Norman, as well as the chairs of each club. The letters complained about the lack of progress in negotiations with the league.
“We are not asking you to pick sides in this dispute but to encourage the NRL to engage in a process to resolve it,” said the letters, signed by Rugby League Players’ Association chairman Deidre Anderson and chief executive Clint Newton and seen by the Sydney Morning Herald.
“We’ve laid the path out; it is fair and reasonable and can enable an end to these negotiations. It is in the interest of everyone invested in the NRL and the sport of rugby league that this matter be resolved.”
The players have been locked in negotiations with the league over a range of issues covered in their collective bargaining agreement, including a minimum wage, agreement rights over a longer season, insurance for death and total disability and autonomy over union funding.
Previous industrial action taken by the players has included a media ban, which saw no star players feature in the TV campaign for this year’s season and last week, the players covered the NRL logo on their jerseys. This certainly caused a stir in the media with Fox News journalist James Hooper saying:
“I think the best thing they could do with the gaffer tape is wrap it around Clint Newton’s mouth and he’s not allowed to talk publicly anymore because whenever he does open his mouth he only embarrasses himself.”
Newton is the CEO of the RLPA.
None of the sponsors have commented publicly on the letter and it is understood that the league is drafting a letter to send to sponsors in response to the players’ letter. The NRL also declined to comment.
