Judge: US women's soccer team bound by no-strike clause (The Associated Press)

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, concluding 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 warned that a strike could have forced the women to pull out of the Olympics, which, it said, 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 that it would strike.