pects of the antitrust exemption. But once again, Congress rejected the bill.The strike ended as a result of Government action, but not by the President or Congress. As noted earlier, at the end of 1994 the owners imposed a salary cap, reasoning that an impasse had been reached in the negotiations. This prompted the union to file unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB, accusing the owners of failure to negotiate in good faith and imposing the cap without a genuine impasse. Although the owners had reopened negotiations in December 1992, they did not make an offer until 18 months later. Furthermore, the proposed offer made radical changes in the agreement. Then, after the owners made little change in their position, an impasse was declared. In light of these facts, the owners were vulnerable to charges of violation of labor law (Monthly Labor Review).On March 26, 1995 the NLRB voted 3-2 to seek a court ruling forcing the owners to reinstate the provisions of the old collective bargaining agreement. Earlier, the Board had issued a complaint to the effect that the owners violated the National Labor Relations Act by implementing their proposal when no legal impasse existed. At the time, the owners might have imposed a lockout, but it is unlikely that they could have gotten the three-fourths vote needed to do so. Although technically the NLRB had only issued a complaint against the owners, and there was no specific ruling on the merits of the unfair labor practice charges, which could take considerable time, the boards decision to seek an injunction pushed the matter to the court for speedy action. Wisely, Fehr indicated that the players would end the strike under cover of such an injunction. On March 31, U.S. District Judge Sonia Sotomayor ruled in favor of the players and issued an injunction against the owners. Judge Sotomayor ordered management to restore free agent bidding, salary arbitration, and the anti-collusion p...
