Mara's been on both sides of ball
File photo of Giants owner John Mara. Credit: Howard Schnapp
When the NFL and the NFL Players Association first began negotiating a new collective-bargaining agreement, Giants president and co-owner John Mara felt he could lend a unique perspective to the talks. And not simply because his father, the late Wellington Mara, had been a part of several previous negotiations with the players' union.
Unlike his father, John used to be on the other side of the table, representing hard-nosed labor unions in New York City, unions often involved in bruising negotiations with their employers. After graduating from Fordham Law School in 1979, he went to work for the law firm Vedder, Price, Kaufman, Kammholz and Day, and bargained for pay and benefits increases for members of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union. And the Service Employees International Union 32B-32J.
These were men and women whose livelihoods depended on the gains won by their union advocates, and Mara did his best to fight for every nickel for his constituents. Not professional football players with big salaries, but laborers who had to battle for everything they got.
"I happen to believe in the collective-bargaining process," Mara said in an interview with Newsday after the NFL and NFLPA broke off CBA talks Friday. "As a labor lawyer before I started with the Giants [in 1991], I have a lot of respect for it."
Mara initially was hopeful the sides could avoid the collapse in negotiations that occurred Friday after 16 days of talks before federal mediator George Cohen in Washington, D.C. But as the talks went on, he came to the conclusion that the union, led by executive director DeMaurice Smith -- himself a former attorney -- and outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler, didn't want to make a deal.
Mara's feeling was borne out by the events that happened late Friday afternoon, when the union representatives left the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services building on the corner of K Street and 21st Street in Washington and announced they would be decertifying as a union. Shortly thereafter, an antitrust lawsuit was filed against the league, with several big-name players as plaintiffs. One of Mara's own players, Osi Umenyiora, was on that list.
"What this union has chosen to do is irresponsible, and it's a sham," Mara said. "They've decided that they'll be able to gain more leverage in taking us to court than sitting across from the bargaining table and bargaining in good faith."
Despite the breakdown in negotiations, Mara believes the two sides eventually will reconvene negotiations and hammer out a deal. "I believe we'll have football," he said. "I just have to believe [NFLPA officials] will come to their senses by then and attempt to engage in meaningful bargaining as opposed to this litigation strategy."
But the only way to settle the issues is to do it the way Mara did for the maintenance workers, window cleaners and hotel service staff he once represented: face-to-face across the bargaining table.
The quicker both sides get back there, the sooner we'll have football again.
