New York Knicks Owner James Dolan Charged With Violating Labor Laws

New York Knicks owner James Dolan finds himself in a legal dispute with the federal government.

More from NBA

New York Knicks owner James Dolan is in trouble with the National Labor Relations Board, which is charging him with breaking federal labor laws.

According to the New York Times, the NLRB says Dolan, CEO of New York telecommunications company Cablevision, illegaly threatened to deny Brooklyn technicians a pay increase unless they voted to quit their union.

The NLRB says that Cablevision illegally undermined the union’s representation of the workers by sponsoring a nonbinding poll to determine if the technicians wanted to leave the union.

Dolan told the Times that the NLRB accepted the union’s claims before reading all of Cablevision’s response to the incident, and accused the board of being a “tool of Big Labor.”

Dolan, who also owns Madison Square Garden, the New York Rangers and the MSG Network that broadcasts Knicks and Rangers games, replaced his father as CEO of Cablevision in 1995.

Here is more specific legal mumbo jumbo, via the Times, in case you are interested.

"The latest complaint focuses on a speech Mr. Dolan gave to the Brooklyn technicians on Sept. 9, during which he said he would help get the union to withdraw its representation of them if they voted against keeping the union. Cablevision sponsored a vote on the issue the next day to gauge workers’ sentiment. According to the Honest Ballot Association, which conducted the poll, 129 workers voted not to retain the union, and 115 voted to keep it.The N.L.R.B.’s Brooklyn regional director, James G. Paulsen, said the poll unlawfully interfered with the union’s ability to represent the Brooklyn technicians, especially when, according to the board, Cablevision had not bargained in good faith and company officials had illegally promised individual workers better benefits and working conditions if they voted to oust the union.Typically under federal law, workers can only vote to decertify or quit a union through a vote conducted by the labor board. Cablevision workers have petitioned it to hold a decertification vote, but the agency has said such a vote would be unfair when the company has been charged with numerous labor violations."

More from FanSided