The NBA Players Union and the Lockout: explanation

Can someone explain to me how the NBA player's union works? I'm doing employment relations in my Management paper at uni, but I don't really get how the NBA (or NHL for that matter)'s player's union works, they get paid heaps anyway and they have heaps of bargaining power individually anyway, why in the world do they still need a union!!???
What were the terms of the last CBA?
What are they negotiating for this year?

check 82games.com i think one of the columnists who is a specialist on the CBA wrote everything there is to know about it.

as for the union, well someone needs to take in the best interests of the players i guess. Otherwise Stern would have absolute power. You might want to also check the NBA's constitution too, that should be interesting, if they have it online.

The players need a union because the CBA expires every seven years or so, at which point certain terms need to be negotiated before a new agreement can be signed. With changes in revenue, not to mention incidents like KG's contract demands circa 1997, both sides are looking to get a better deal.

The union is there to protect the interests of the players, not only during the collective bargaining but also when it comes to player fines and suspensions. When Sprewell was first suspended over the PJ Carliesimo incident, he was suspended for two years and the Warriors released him. The player's union appealed the decision, and it was ruled he should only be suspended for the remainder of the 1997/1998 season and the Warriors still had to honour his contract.

Not every player makes 10+M a year, remember the League is _mostly_ made up of non-stars, the stars are the exception not the rule.

One of the things that the CBA does is look out for the little guys that have no leverage. The 12th men. THey don't get paid nearly as much, half go to taxes, another portion to the agent, and they'll play for a few years and that's the end of their income. That has to support them for the rest of their lives, unless they were smart enough to get out of college ball w/ a good degree as well as being drafted.

I think the Union has goods & bads, but i think the situation for non-star players is much improved recently.

Good point.
it's interesting..we are used to think about NBA players as milionaires, but many of them are not. Some get paid "only" a hundred thousands dollars per year, which is about the same as good sales man annual salary.

Think about it..some good sales people can earn more money than an NBA player....amazing.

In my opinion the gap between an NBA star's salary and a 10th-12th nba player salary is too big. Maybe they can do something about it, especially if you consider that most of the stars get extra money from the sponsors..
they really don't need all that money, even if their family is full of big mouths, like Sprewell's family... I suppose

I don't think there's much that can be done to change it now, there's enough money in professional basketball to allow the best players to be paid an astounding amount per year.