I believe if the CFLPA sticks to its "revenue-sharing" mantra and is willing to disrupt the opening of the regular season, the league may have no option but to sign replacement players and start the season without the union.
We know the 9 CFL teams would have no trouble finding 36 new players who are willing to play football for money. There will also be some current CFLPA players who will cross the picket line and rejoin their teams. I'd suggest smaller rosters of perhaps 36 with a standard salary of $50,000, for example. Veteran players who crossed the picket line would be paid their full salary.
The NFL used replacement players in 1985 and a surprising number of veterans crossed the picket lines. As I remember the football was pretty good (although not up to XFL standards ).
The problem is there isn't the talent pool to stock each team with replacement non-import players, so the import quota would probably have to be moth-balled for this season. The best player willing to play should get the opportunity, regardless of nationality.
The pressure from CFLPA players wanting to cross the picket line and the opening up of rosters to All-American players, would put the tremendous squeeze on the union from both imports and non-imports. So much so, they'd likely be better off blowing it up and starting over.
For what? The right to link the player's salaries to a bunch of small businesses, the majority of which barely break-even or lose money...and survive mainly through the generosity and sense of duty by their owners?
Perhaps the players should be paid a variable percentage of revenues, ensuring the businesses returned a minimum 5% profit margin? When revenues go up, salaries could go up, as long as the owner made his 5% return on investment.
The CFLPA would be smarter to accept be best maximum and minimum Cap they can negotiate, along with increased training camp and post-season remuneration, increased minimum salaries, increased practice squad salaries, increased pension, etc, which have all been proposed by the owners.
In 5 or 10 years, the league might be strong and profitable enough to re-visit the revenue sharing idea. At this time, the players need to play and the season needs to start as scheduled. Anything less and the pie will only get smaller.