Time Running Out For Labor Agreement

If acting commissioner Bud Selig wants a labor deal, he needs to decide this week.

Management negotiator Randy Levine and union head Donald Fehr return to work Tuesday following Yom Kippur. The pair, according to several sources, have told each other that if an agreement isn’t finalized this week, it isn’t likely to happen this year.

Since the ruling executive council met in Chicago on Sept. 11, Selig hasn’t given any indications of his thinking. Supporters of a deal and those against an agreement report that their conversations with Selig leave them with the impression that he is on their side.

Selig and Levine spent the weekend in Milwaukee, and they planned to discuss the labor situation before attending temple together. Heading into the weekend, both factions appeared to agree that Selig could get a deal ratified by owners if he wants to.

Fehr said that it will be hard to ratify a new labor contract before the end of the World Series unless there’s an agreement this week. Once the postseason starts, players on 20 teams will have headed home, some to vacations that will make them hard to find.

If a deal isn’t in place by the end of the postseason, players will start filing for free agency under the rules of the contract that expired in December 1993, a deal kept in force by a federal court order.

And if Selig doesn’t make a decision, he by default sides with Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who would rather continue the old system for another year and come back with an entirely new proposal, possibly a salary cap. His strategy, according to several sources, is to present a plan, refuse to budge and attempt to unilaterally impose it.

If that ever happens, union officials say players would strike again.

Not having an agreement leads to the following ramifications:

No interleague play in 1997.

No revenue sharing money this year for small-market teams.

A renewal of the television fight, with low-revenue teams threatening to prevent their home games from being televised to the cities of certain visiting teams.

Some teams threatening to refuse to let superstations televise their games.

Several major corporations refusing to sign commitments with major league baseball.

Selig getting at least one additional year as acting commissioner.

Levine’s resignation as the owners’ negotiator.

All this follows the millions of dollars lost since the strike.

Owners, who say the 28 teams combined for operating losses of $363.8 million in 1994 and $305.3 million last year, project additional loses of $150 million this season.

Revenue for 1996 is projected to total between $1.7 billion and $1.8 billion, still below the $1.865 billion taken in during 1993, the last year before the crippling 232-day strike.

Attendance was down 20 percent on a per-game basis last season and has rebounded just 6 percent this year, far below management’s preseason projection, according to several sources.

Many of the small-market teams had been counting on their revenue-sharing money. According to the latest management projections, 11 teams would receive more than $2 million each: Pittsburgh ($4.7), Kansas City ($4.5), Montreal ($4.5), Detroit ($4.4), Minnesota ($4), Milwaukee ($3.7), Oakland ($3.2), Cincinnati ($3), California ($2.7), San Diego ($2.7) and Houston ($2.5).

Nine teams would pay more than $1 million apiece: the New York Yankees ($5.5), Cleveland ($5), Baltimore ($5), Atlanta ($4), Los Angeles ($3.4), Texas ($2.8), Boston ($2.7), Chicago White Sox ($2.4) and Toronto ($1.2).

When owners approved interleague play last January and revenue sharing last March, they said both were contingent on agreements with the players.

If there’s a deal this week, a luxury tax will decrease the disparity in payrolls among the large- and small-market teams in the next three seasons. If there’s no deal, baseball’s attempt to recover from the strike appears stuck for at least one more year.