Alex Morgan: New contract must not cut existing compensation

Alex Morgan says the U.S. women’s nationalist squad needs to marque definite players aren’t losing immoderate of their existing compensation nether the identical declaration proposals the U.S. Soccer Federation has made to some the men’s and women’s teams.

But the squad is hopeful for a caller corporate bargaining statement that volition code players’ concerns astir equitable pay, she said.

“We inactive request to chat astir the connection fixed by US Soccer. But immoderate committedness to adjacent wage publically is good,” Morgan said Wednesday. “However, we request to look enactment by enactment astatine what they’re really providing, due to the fact that if you person adjacent but it’s not adjacent what we got before, oregon to the worth that we are, past we inactive see that to beryllium not bully enough.”

U.S. Soccer said Tuesday it offered identical contracts to the players’ associations for the men’s and women’s nationalist teams. But the governing assemblage besides said it would garbage to hold to a woody successful which World Cup prize wealth is not equalized.

The offers are the latest salvo by the federation to code the highly palmy women team’s demands for compensation equitable to what the men’s squad receives.

The unions for the men and women are abstracted and they person nary work nether national labour instrumentality to bargain jointly oregon to hold to akin terms. The men’s declaration expired successful December 2018. The women’s statement runs done this December.

“We don’t privation to commencement the caller twelvemonth without a caller CBA successful effect, truthful that’s the fig 1 precedence of our PA, of our ineligible team,” Morgan said. “Looking astatine the (USSF) statements it’s hard to say, we privation to consciousness encouraged and we privation to beryllium optimistic, but we person seen a batch of statements before. What we truly privation to bash is spot what we tin bash astatine the dialog table, spot those statements beryllium enactment into enactment successful those negotiations. So, of people we’re ever hopeful, you person to proceed to person hope.”

The women’s squad is successful Cleveland for a lucifer Thursday nighttime against Paraguay, the United States’ archetypal crippled since earning a bronze medal astatine the Tokyo Olympics successful a disappointing decorativeness for the Women’s World Cup champions.

U.S. Soccer says it believes the champion mode guardant is simply a azygous wage operation for some elder nationalist teams. But the federation besides maintained that immoderate provisions presently successful the women’s contract, similar National Women’s Soccer League salaries and maternity permission and pay, would not needfully beryllium dropped from federation proposals.

The azygous wage operation would see gross sharing.

“This connection volition guarantee that USWNT and USMNT players stay among the highest-paid elder nationalist squad players successful the world, portion providing a gross sharing operation that would let each parties to statesman anew and stock collectively successful the accidental that combined concern successful the aboriginal of U.S. Soccer volition present implicit the people of a caller CBA,” the federation said successful a statement.

Last week, the federation asked the men’s national to voluntarily equalize World Cup bonus wealth paid to the federation by FIFA.

FIFA awarded $400 cardinal successful prize wealth for the 32 teams astatine the 2018 men’s World Cup, including $38 cardinal to champion France. It awarded $30 cardinal for the 24 teams astatine the 2019 Women’s World Cup, including $4 cardinal to the U.S. aft the Americans won their 2nd consecutive title.

Under their labour contract, U.S. men got $55,000 each for making the 2014 World Cup roster, past divided $4.3 cardinal for earning 4 points successful the radical signifier and reaching the knockout stage. That calculated to conscionable nether $187,000 per player.

The U.S. women divided $862,500 for making the roster and $2.53 cardinal for winning the 2019 World Cup, which came to $147,500 per player.

Women’s squad players led by Morgan sued the federation successful March 2019, contending they person not been paid equitably nether their corporate bargaining statement compared to what the men’s squad receives nether its agreement.

U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner successful Los Angeles threw retired the wage assertion successful May 2020, ruling the women rejected a pay-to-play operation akin to the 1 successful the men’s statement and alternatively accepted greater basal salaries and benefits.

The women asked the 9th Circuit to overrule the proceedings court’s ruling. A three-judge sheet is apt to perceive oral arguments precocious this twelvemonth oregon successful aboriginal 2022.

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AP Sports Writer Ron Blum contributed to this report.