Tom Brady has attracted even more support this time coming from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. So now Brady has Robert Kraft and now the AFL-CIO on his side as they have both filed an Amicus Brief in favor of Tom Brady.
The AFL-CIO is the largest federation of unions in the United States. So this Brief is a big deal as it is now catching the eyes of the big corporations. AFL-CIO said in the brief that the NFL’s Commissioner Roger Goodell’s actions as arbitrator as “error” and requesting that the award be vacated.
The Brief would than go on to say that “because the Commissioner – who issued the discipline to Brady in the first instance – failed to follow basic procedural fairness and acted arbitrarily as an employer seeking to justify his own disciplinary decision rather than as a neutral arbitrator considering an appeal – his decision should be vacated.”
They would also go on to say the appeal was not fair as “while the NFL and NFLPA bargained to allow the Commissioner to hear appeals of disciplinary decisions, they did not agree to let the Commissioner, sitting as an appellate arbitrator, to act in a manner that is arbitrary and capricious. Regardless of who hears appeals, labor arbitration always must be fundamentally fair.”
Goodell could not sell the whole it’s “more probable than not” theory to the AFL-CIO as they would say “Rather than engage with this issue to test “the correctness of [the discipline]” based “upon the reason given at the time,’” Misco, 484 U.S. at 39 n.8 (1987), the Commissioner “attempt[ed] to strengthen the employer[’]s defense,” BRAND & BIREN, DISCIPLINE AND DISCHARGE, p. 50.”
The conclusion is nice and simple it is that the “Court should grant the Association’s petition for panel rehearing or, in the alternative, grant the petition for en banc review.”
This is definitely a small win for Brady as this will hopefully help him get a rehearing or an en banc review.
You can read the full Brief below: http://thesportsesquires.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/aflcio-brief.pdf
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
