Professional Hockey Players' Association
| Full name | Professional Hockey Players' Association |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1967 |
| Members | 1,600 |
| Head union | Larry Landon |
| Office location | Niagara Falls, Ontario |
| Country | Canada, United States |
| Website | www |
The Professional Hockey Players' Association, or PHPA, is the labor union that represents the interests of hockey players in the American Hockey League and ECHL, the two largest minor leagues in North American professional ice hockey. Established in 1967, the PHPA is one of the oldest players' unions in professional sports. Recognized by the US National Labor Relations Board as the certified bargaining unit for all members enrolled in the Association, the main function of the PHPA is to negotiate and protect various player benefits by way of a Collective Bargaining Agreement. These benefits include: health and welfare benefits, training camp allowances, travel and trade relocation expenses, per diem, housing allowances, play-off shares, licensing rights, revenue-sharing, and membership assistance programs.
The Professional Hockey Player's Association was founded in 1967 in Portland, Oregon, when members of the Portland Buckaroos (of the now defunct Western Hockey League (WHL)) recognized that Canadians playing hockey in the United States who were starting families would send their wives home to Canada to give birth to their babies. Canada's social insurance system would cover the expense for Canadian citizens in Canada, but the teams provided no coverage usable in the U.S. A number of Portland Buckaroos, including Doug Messier, Arlo Goodwin, and teammates, led the group and hired Portland attorney Curt Leichner as their legal counsel to legally form a WHL Players Association to allow WHL players to take advantage of group pension and health care plans, gaining better benefits through strength in numbers.
Over the course of the 1967–68 season, players from the American Hockey League saw the benefit of forming a “benevolent society” of their own and approached their WHL counterparts with the vision of creating one players' association which would represent all professional hockey players outside of the National Hockey League (NHL). On May 20, 1968, WHL and AHL players voted to form the “Professional Hockey Players’ Association”.
...
Wikipedia