CHICAGO (AP) - A federal judge in Chicago ruled Friday that the world champion U.S. women's soccer team does not have the right to strike to seek improved conditions and wages before the Summer Olympics, seeming to end the prospect of an unprecedented disruption by one of the most successful American national teams.
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, which sued to clarify the strike issue. U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman's written ruling says the team remains bound by a no-strike clause from earlier agreements with the federation.