With union leader Donald Fehr back at the bargaining table after spending most of the last month meeting with players, baseball’s ongoing labor talks picked up some momentum on Monday.
That, by itself, hardly provides encouragement about avoiding a strike later this month or in September. But after months of tiptoeing around the central issues, Fehr and negotiators for Commissioner Bud Selig are at least discussing revenue sharing and a luxury tax.
The sides met for about five hours in a series of three meetings in New York. “This was the fullest day we’ve had,” said Rob Manfred, Selig’s top negotiator. “I would expect the pace of the activity to be heightened this week.”
Fehr will excuse himself from talks Tuesday for a conference call of player representatives from the 30 teams. There had been speculation that a strike date could be set during this call, but it appears that will wait until next week.
Fehr has been telling player reps to be on standby for a possible meeting in Chicago on Monday. Twenty teams are off that day and Houston and the Cubs play a night game at Wrigley Field.
While Fehr will provide reports on bargaining, it appears the primary topic of Tuesday’s call will be random testing for steroids and other performance-enhancing substances. The union is expected to make its proposal for testing later this week, according to union lawyer Michael Weiner.
There are signs that the sides are beginning to move toward a solution that would avoid baseball’s ninth work stoppage since 1972.
Manfred said the sides are “moving closer” on revenue sharing, making him optimistic that “this issue is resolvable.” There are indications they are exploring a compromise between the owners’ preferred method–the so-called straight pool–and the split pool, which has been proposed by the union.
“There can be middle ground,” Manfred said. “It’s all shades of gray.”
But Manfred reiterated that revenue sharing and a luxury tax–owners have proposed 50 percent on all payrolls above $98 million–are not independent issues. If one side concedes ground in revenue sharing, it would expect the other to make a similar move on the issue of the luxury tax. While the sides have discussed the tax, it remains a polarizing issue.
“At the end of the day,” Manfred said, “the deal gets done as an overall puzzle.”
