CHICAGO — A federal judge says the world champion U.S. women’s soccer team currently does not have the right to strike to seek improved conditions and wages before the Summer Olympics.
Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman ruled Friday that the team remains bound by a no-strike clause in earlier agreements.
The case pits the team’s union, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team Players Association, against the Chicago-based governing body, the U.S. Soccer Federation. The federation sued to clarify the strike issue.
The federation warned that a strike could have forced the women to pull out of the Olympics, which, in turn, would have hurt the development of the sport in the U.S. The union wanted the option of striking, though it hadn’t said definitively it would strike.
The women’s team is seeking its fourth straight Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro.
