Final answer:
Owners in professional sports can use lockouts, salary caps, and strategic collective bargaining to diminish union strength, with lockouts being a direct tactic to put pressure on unions.
Step-by-step explanation:
Owners of professional sports teams employ various strategies to minimize union strength. One such strategy is the use of lockouts, which is an action taken by owners to prevent employees from working. This is used to exert pressure on the labor union to accept contract terms favorable to the owners. In comparison, strikes are initiated by employees as a form of protest to push for their demands.
Another strategy involves collective bargaining, where both owners and unions negotiate terms. While collective bargaining is often seen as a way to resolve disputes, it can also be strategically used by owners to reach agreements that are less favorable to unions. Lastly, the implementation of salary caps can limit the amount teams can spend on player salaries, thus indirectly weakening the bargaining power of the union.