The WNBA’s collective bargaining situation is coming to a head, and the players’ union is making sure the league understands exactly where it stands. With a critical deadline just days away, WNBPA Vice President Alysha Clark stepped forward to deliver a message that left very little room for interpretation.
CBA Deadline Looms As Union Reasserts Itself
The backdrop to Clark’s warning is a negotiation that has grown increasingly tense in recent days. A private three-page letter written by WNBPA executive committee members Breanna Stewart and Kelsey Plum and obtained by ESPN surfaced earlier this week, raising concerns about the union’s handling of CBA talks and a perceived lack of player involvement.
The letter, combined with comments from both Stewart and Plum suggesting a strike would be the worst possible outcome for all parties, created an impression of a divided union. Wednesday’s developments were the executive committee’s direct response to that narrative.
The seven-player executive committee issued a unified statement reaffirming their commitment to securing what they called a “transformational CBA,” and Clark went a step further on ESPN’s NBA Today.
“We are at a place where we feel like the proposals the league has sent haven’t been good ones,” Clark said. “And we want to continue to fight for what we know we deserve. We hope that at some point the league decides to have that same sentiment towards us as well through the proposals that they send.”
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On the question of a strike, one that Stewart and Plum had appeared to soften earlier in the week, Clark was unambiguous. “As a union, we’re going to use every tool that we have in our pocket to be able to fight and get what we know we deserve. So it’s very much still on the table.”
The union also released the results of a player survey that asked whether players would accept the league’s current proposal, described as 50% of net revenue, amounting to less than 15% of gross revenue, in an eight-year deal, or push the union to keep negotiating. The results were decisive: 84% of respondents said the current offer was not worth accepting.
The urgency behind Wednesday’s statement is hard to overstate. The WNBA has set March 10 as the deadline for completing a CBA term sheet. It’s an absolutely necessary date to keep the 2026 regular season on track for its scheduled May 8 start. Before that, the league must also navigate a college draft on April 13, a two-team expansion draft, and free agency for over 100 players. The clock is ticking, and the margin for error is shrinking fast.
The executive committee’s statement also made explicit reference to the December player vote that authorized the committee to call a strike when necessary, stressing that “nothing has changed.”
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Stewart, for her part, clarified that the letter was always intended as an internal communication and that a call held Tuesday evening helped reset the tone. “Sometimes hard conversations need to be had,” she said. “I felt better after it.”
Whether that goodwill extends across the negotiating table before March 10 is now the defining question hanging over the entire league.
