WNBA players union director doesnt rule out work stoppage: As long as it takes

Women’s National Basketball Players Association executive director Terri Jackson said Thursday the union is committed to negotiating “for as long as it takes” on a new collective bargaining agreement and didn’t rule out a potential work stoppage.“There’s no better moment than right now for women’s sports and particularly for women’s basketball and particularly for us,” Jackson said.“So are we seizing on every level? Absolutely.” Jackson spoke with reporters, including The Post, for roughly 15 minutes after being featured on a panel about motherhood in sports at the ESPNW Summit, in what was her first detailed update on the ongoing CBA negotiations.

The current CBA expires at the end of the 2025 season. Increased player salaries, implementing a softened salary cap, expanded rosters, better access to family planning services and players having a seat at the table for media rights negotiations are some of the hot-button issues at the forefront of negotiations. The WNBPA has submitted multiple proposals to the league as of Thursday, Jackson said.The goal is to have made “significant progress” in hammering out the new deal by WNBA All-Star, which is scheduled for July 18-19, and to have a deal finalized by the time the current deal expires at the end of this season. “We’ve been aggressive in terms of our discussions, our proposals – plural – and our meeting schedule,” Jackson said.

“It’s a group project.We’ve doing our part of it, and we’re just hopeful that the league sees the opportunity to have those kinds of milestones really in place, like work towards significant progress.

It’s not just a catch phrase – significant progress by the halfway points and work toward completion by Oct.31.” CBA negotiations will continue to be a major storyline for the upcoming WNBA season, which opens May 17.

A work stoppage is not out of the question if they can’t reach a deal. The WNBA didn’t immediately return The Post’...