The National Labor Relations Board has charged Knicks owner James Dolan with breaking federal labor laws.

According to The New York Times, the NLRB says Dolan, who is the CEO of the New York-area telecommunications company Cablevision, threatened to withhold pay increases from his company's technicians in Brooklyn if they did not vote to quit their union.

The NLRB also alleges that Dolan's company undermined the union "by sponsoring a nonbinding poll to determine whether [the technicians] wanted to leave their union," according to the Times.

Dolan told the Times that the NLRB accepted the union's claims before reading all of Cablevision's response.

Dolan, 59, replaced his father, Charles, as CEO of Cablevision in 1995. He also owns Madison Square Garden, the NHL's New York Rangers and the MSG Network, which broadcasts Knicks and Rangers games.

- Dan Gartland