When Athletes Walked, Was It a Boycott or a Strike?

(Bloomberg) -- Players on the National Basketball Association’s Milwaukee Bucks decided not to go forward with an Aug. 26 playoff game against the Orlando Magic in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The protest quickly spread to other sports leagues. To superstar LeBron James and many other basketball players, the action constituted a “boycott.” Others say the right word is “strike.” Some say the semantics matter.

1. What’s the difference between a boycott and a strike?

A boycott, according to Webster’s New World College Dictionary, happens when people “join together in refusing to deal with” the subject of the action, while strikers “refuse to continue to work at (a factory, company, etc.) until certain demands are met.”

2. So which word applies?

The NBA players’ concerted refusal to work, some labor experts say, qualifies as a strike. That’s the word Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, urged the media to adopt, saying on Twitter that the difference “is important” because “it shows their power as *workers.*”

3. Why not just call it a strike?

Workers “have a federally protected right to strike to protest their working conditions,” said Catherine Fisk, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley. But NBA players may have wanted to avoid the word because their collective bargaining agreement states, “During the term of this agreement, neither the Players Association nor its members shall engage in any strikes, cessations or stoppages of work, or any other similar interference with the operations of the NBA or any of its teams.” For that reason, Daniel Kelly, academic director of graduate programs at New York University’s School of Professional Studies in the Tisch Institute for Global Sport, said the NBA player action “should be characterized as a ‘wildcat’ strike, which is an unsanctioned activity not authorized or approved” by the players’ association.

4. What does this mean for the labor agreement?

“That’s an issue that will be resolved through the dispute resolution process provided in the contract,” Fisk predicted. Several teams have tweeted support for the player actions. If the support of team owners flags, though, they could go to a federal court seeking injunctions forbidding future strikes, said Michael Duff, a professor of law at the University of Wyoming.

5. Does this have to be a ‘strike’ or ‘boycott’?

“It is important to note that this is not a strike. This is not a boycott. This is affirmatively a day of reflection, a day of informed action and mobilization,” Nneka Ogwumike, president of the WNBA’s players association, said on Aug. 27. Boston Celtics player Enes Kanter said in an interview, “I think the one word I would use is a stand -- we’ve taken a stand. I don’t want to be only remembered by my game, I want to be remembered for the work I’m doing off the court.”

The Reference Shelf

• The NBA playoffs are resuming.
• The league’s collective bargaining agreement.
• Bloomberg Opinion columnist Joe Nocera was impressed with what the players did.

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