An N.H.L. maneuver circumventing the players union seemed to backfire Tuesday, further angering union officials and dimming hopes for a prompt end to the lockout.
The controversy erupted just two days before a league deadline for reaching a settlement that would preserve an 82-game season. The level of rancor was highlighted Tuesday evening, when the N.H.L. Players' Association offered to resume negotiations Wednesday or any other date, but the league declined the offer.
The maneuver involved an N.H.L. memo sent to the owners and general managers of each club, giving the general managers a 48-hour period last week to answer players' questions about the league's latest contract offer. But the league did not inform the union that it had sent the memo.
"Most owners are not allowed to attend bargaining meetings," Steve Fehr, the union's special counsel, said in a statement Tuesday, the 38th day of the lockout. "No owners are allowed to speak to the media about the bargaining. It is interesting that they are secretly unleashed to talk to the players about the meetings the players can attend, but the owners cannot."
Throughout the lockout, the N.H.L. has forbidden owners and league and club employees to communicate with players. It has enforced rules prohibiting public comment from anyone but Commissioner Gary Bettman and Bill Daly, the deputy commissioner. Players face no such restrictions from the union.
The memo was a "nonissue," Daly said in an e-mail. "As long as the communications are legally appropriate — and these are — what we decide to permit or not permit our club executives to do or say is entirely up to us. It's not a matter that we have to consult, involve or bargain with the union over."
While owners, general managers and agents conduct informal communication during lockouts, the N.H.L.'s maneuver last week would be upsetting to the union, said Scott Rosner, a professor of sports business at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
"They're essentially trying to make an end run around the union," he said. "From the union perspective, that would understandably be seen as highly inappropriate."
The memo came to light Monday in a report from Louis Jean of the Quebec television channel TVA.
According to Daly, players were contacting clubs with questions about the league's proposal, and the memo was distributed in response.
A copy of the memo was obtained by The Canadian Press, and expressly forbade general managers from negotiating with players, asking what they want in negotiations or listening to players' ideas for bargaining. General managers were limited to answering questions about the league's proposal.
"A failure to follow these rules can both set us back in our effort to resolve this work stoppage and cause serious legal problems," the memo read. "They have been designed in light of the fact that the N.H.L.P.A. is, in fact and in law, the sole collective bargaining representative of the Players and that any effort to motivate the Players must be to have them act through their union, not instead of or in opposition to it."
Rosner said such a move during a negotiation would be considered unusual. "Isn't that the job of the union, to answer the questions of its constituencies?" he said. "The union's position is going to be, 'It's not management's place to educate our players — we're perfectly capable of doing it ourselves.' "
Erik Cole, the Canadiens' assistant player representative, told The Montreal Gazette, "I see this as the league trying to undermine our union."
The memo was the latest in a series of league moves that have caused tensions. In July, the N.H.L.'s initial offer, which sought a reduction in the players' share of league revenue to 43 percent from 57 percent, set a truculent tone for subsequent talks. Last week, Bettman, Daly and four owners rejected three union counteroffers 10 to 15 minutes after they were presented.
The N.H.L. has canceled games through October. Last week the league proposed an immediate 50-50 revenue split with the players, with a provision to preserve existing contracts against rollbacks.
The union said that the provision made players pay to preserve their contracts, and made two offers that eventually reached a 50-50 revenue split. A third proposed an immediate 50-50 split if current contracts were paid in full. The offers were rejected.
On Tuesday night there were no plans for talks. "Given their rejection of the proposal we made last Tuesday, and their indication that they aren't prepared to make a new one, we don't see anything to be gained to meet," Daly said via e-mail. "Time to rethink proposals, season dynamics and next steps. Back to the drawing board."
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