clarinews@clarinet.com (02/03/90)
NEW YORK (UPI) -- The National Labor Relations Board Friday notified the NFL Management Council the teams' refusal to make $11.34 million in pension contributions was legal, Management Council said. The NFL Players Association filed a claim with the NLRB, seeking to force the teams to play the disputed contribution for the retirement plan for the year ending March 31, 1989. The NLRB ruled the teams were not required to make the payment under the collective bargaining agreement. The board dismissed a similar claim in September for $11.34 million for the pension plan ending in 1988. Jack Donlan, executive director of the NFL Management Council, said the union should concentrate on collective bargaining rather than challenging management in the courts. The two sides have been without a collective bargaining agreement since 1987, when the players staged a mid-season strike. ``The NFLPA has abandoned player benefits as well as bargaining,'' Donlan said. ``Players are losing milliions at the same time clubs want to bargain huge increases. ``The NFLPA should be helping players, not insisting on court fights to resolve differences than can be settled in collective bargaining. That strategy has badly hurt players over the last three years.''