The Press Democrat is running an AP article about how the Raiders are handling the lockout. I’ll link to it below but it basically says Raiders employees are being asked to sell tickets to augment their regular duties during the lockout. If they sell a certain amount they won’t have their salaries cut.

Let me say this. The article quotes Raiders CEO Amy Trask who supports this program. I’ve always found Amy to be ethical and fair-minded. Still, this new arrangement troubles me. I am not a lawyer and I often feel confused when it comes to real-life business issues, so maybe my feeling of discomfort is silly. It’s just that employees — coaches, secretaries, executives, etc. — are being asked to step up and sell tickets and maybe lose salary when they had nothing to do with the lockout in the first place. The owners singlehandedly forced the lockout. So why should anyone but owners feel the pinch or even feel threatened by what’s going on?

Maybe I am missing a nuance of this situation and if I am please tell me. But it just doesn’t seem fair.

One other thing — having employees who don’t usually deal with tickets actually sell tickets seems, well, kind of cheap. The Raiders aren’t a charity or a nonprofit. They are not Public Television trying to sell subscriptions so you can watch Masterpiece Theatre. This whole thing seems undignified to me. Am I being too hard on the Raiders? Please tell me.

To read the AP article click here.