Baseball owners meet to consider labor deal

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Posted 7:25AM on Thursday, September 5, 2002

CHICAGO - Six days after their negotiators agreed to a tentative labor contract, baseball owners gather to consider ratifying the deal that averted a player strike. Nothing has been signed yet, and negotiators for players and owners are drafting a memorandum of understanding, which they hope to complete by next week. The executive board of the players' association also must ratify the agreement. ``It is our intention to ratify before the season is over,'' union lawyer Michael Weiner said. A majority is needed for approval by the owners, except for the provisions dealing with revenue sharing, which require at least 23 of the 30 votes. Six years ago, approving a collective bargaining agreement took as many turns as a ballgame. After his negotiator reached an agreement with the players' association, commissioner Bud Selig refused to publicly discuss the deal for more than two months, then submitted it to owners without any recommendation. When teams voted that Nov. 6, they rejected the contract 18-12. Twenty-one days later - after Selig recommended approval - owners ratified the deal in a 26-4 vote, with Cleveland, the Chicago White Sox, Kansas City and Oakland opposed. ``A long and winding road has come to an end,'' Selig said that day, speaking at the same Chicago airport hotel where owners met Thursday. This time, he immediately acknowledged the tentative agreement, appearing one hour after it was completed at a news conference in New York with union head Donald Fehr. The contract, which expires in December 2006, increases the amount of shared local revenue from 20 percent to 34 percent, institutes a luxury tax with fixed thresholds from 2003 to 2006, increases the minimum salary from $200,000 to $300,000 and provides for mandatory random testing for illegal steroids, which will start next season on a survey basis. ``This agreement will make significant contributions to restoring competitive balance,'' Selig said. The agreement was reached 3 1/2 hours before the first game that would have been affected by a strike, which would have been baseball's ninth work stoppage since 1972. The last labor deal achieved without a stoppage had been in 1970. Next up for owners is the status of the Montreal Expos. Selig attempted to fold the team last offseason along with the Twins, but baseball's contraction plan was blocked by the Minnesota courts, which forced the Twins to honor their lease at the Metrodome. Under the new labor contract, contraction is prohibited through 2006. The Expos, who were bought by the other 29 teams earlier this year, may be sold, possibly to a group that would attempt to move the franchise to Washington. Selig said in January possible franchise relocations would be addressed only after a labor deal and said Washington was the prime candidate.