Major League Soccer’s 20th season will begin on time thanks to a new collective bargaining agreement struck between the league and the MLS Players Union Wednesday afternoon.
The two sides ratified a new five year collective bargaining agreement that saw the league’s minimum salary rise and created a semblance of free agency for players 28 and older who have a total of eight years experience in Major League Soccer.
Gargan rejoined the Galaxy one day before they open up the 2015 regular season against the Chicago Fire after spending five days, alongside fellow team union representative Todd Dunivant and the rest of the Players Union, at the bargaining table attempting to reach a deal with MLS.
“I think that there was a lot of work put in, not just over these last five days, but over the last five years,” Gargan told LAGalaxy.com. “Working to this point to try and find both goals that we could hit and achieve that were realistic while staying on the field and being able to play, and continue to show up in front of the fans, and give them a great game. Both of those things were really important to us, and at the end of the day, we’re happy that we averted a stoppage.”
A work stoppage seemed like a real possibility at various points over the last week as Gargan and the rest of the players union fought to secure free agency and raise the minimum salary amongst a host of other important issues. Even though the nine-year MLS veteran admits that the union wasn’t able to get everything that they wanted at the bargaining table, Gargan believes the deal was a step forward.
“It’s all a building process. It’s always going to be a bigger picture than what is right in front of us right now,” said Gargan. “I don’t know if we can judge this deal as something that is only to be looked at today or for the next five years, it’s something that can be looked at and judged after we get through this, and see how all these little details work out.
“We’re content with where we got to and where we got the league to agree on something in a single-entity structure that they had always said was an absolute impossibility. There are things that we’re still not necessarily happy with, but you don’t get everything that you want out of a negotiation, and we knew that going in. We’re happy with parts, we’re disappointed with parts. I think that may well be seen what it looks after we get into the practicality of it.”
Coming to an agreement was not an easy task, however, as the discussions became heated not only between the players and league ownership, but within the Players Union themselves.
“The hardest discussions happened within our own rooms. There are a lot of opinions and a lot of good discourse, arguments and discussions that have to happen,” said Gargan. “It makes for long hours because it’s 30 or 40 guys – that number fluctuated depending on who was in the room – guys who are attempting to make decisions for a large population of players and impact that their lives. Everybody in that room, whether you agree with their opinions or not, was fully invested in really trying to better the situation of the whole.”
While dissent within the union ranks was something that came of little surprise to Gargan, the veteran defender had pointed words for stories that have surfaced after the negotiations where players within the union criticized the deal anonymously.
“Listen, it’s an emotional process for everybody and I can speak personally on that side of things. The complete rollercoaster that you go through being in D.C. in those five days in particular, you hit real highs and you find lows that you didn’t know were possible,” Gargan said. “I can completely understand the emotional response that guys are having right now. What I don’t have any time for are guys that aren’t man enough to put their opinion on camera or with journalists or whatever. That’s unacceptable.”
To best unite the Players Union moving forward, Gargan stressed that it will be important for players across MLS to take a step back and digest the information before rushing to judge the new agreement.
“What is unable to happen [in negotiations] is that a lot of information isn’t able to get out to the entire player pool. There are details that leak out [to public] and that affects negotiation. A lot of these guys are getting their first look at what was agreed upon and what was decided. There’s going to be an emotional response,” Gargan said. “There will be some guys that are content with what is happening and some guys that will be upset and may not feel good about it initially, but I think a lot of times, you need to take a step back. That’s what we were doing because there are emotional responses, and you need to look at things analytically, and try to take the emotional response out of it.”
However, to become the first players union in American sports to receive free agency without legal action or a work stoppage provided Gargan and the league’s players with something to hang their hat on for years to come.
“It’s something that we can be proud about. That’s something that we can be happy with moving forward,” said Gargan. “This is not just about today. That’s the decision that we have to make and take that into account. Moving forward, we’re able to continue to play games and get a version of free agency in this league, and have ownership change their philosophy and how they do business.
“That’s a big get for us.”
