USWNT forward Alex Morgan admitted the players are now hopeful on equal pay after the USSF announced a new proposal that would offer the men’s and women’s national teams identical proposals for a new collective bargaining agreement.
The recent developments between Morgan and the USSF signalled a new wave of public cooperation on behalf of both sides towards their shared goal.
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But despite a willing attitude, Morgan maintained a realistic perspective by adding that each document must be carefully reviewed to ensure that the USSF matches what the athletes were earning before.
“We still need to chat about the statement given by U.S. Soccer. But any commitment to equal pay publicly is good,” Morgan said Wednesday.
“However, we need to look line by line at what they’re actually providing, because if you have equal but it’s not even what we got before, or to the value that we are, then we still consider that to be not good enough. We will continue to work with U.S. Soccer moving forward, looking towards equal and fair payment and treatment.”
“We don’t want to start the new year without a new CBA in effect, so that’s the number one priority of our PA, of our legal team. Looking at the [USSF] statements, it’s difficult to say, we want to feel encouraged and we want to be optimistic, but we have seen a lot of statements before.”
“What we really want to do is see what we can do at the negotiation table, see those statements be put into action in those negotiations. So of course we’re always hopeful. Under the new proposal put forward by the USSF, it said it also wouldn’t agree to a CBA with either team that didn’t take the important step of equalizing FIFA World Cup prize money.”
This comes after USSF president Cindy Parlow Cone penned an open letter that implored both national teams to accept the newest terms and conditions and split the FIFA World Cup prize money.
While no official statement has been made by either side, the US women’s national team player association took to twitter to express their concerns.
“USSF’s PR stunts and bargaining through the media will not bring us any closer to a fair agreement,” the USWNTPA said on Twitter.
“In contrast, we are committed to bargaining in good faith to achieve equal pay and the safest working conditions possible. The proposal that USSF made recently to us does neither.”
The negotiations remain ongoing as no formal agreement has been reached.
