Estimating that the parties have had a year to reach a new agreement and that deadlines are deadlines, the MLB spokesman said Wednesday t...
Estimating that the parties have had a year to reach a new agreement and that deadlines are deadlines, the MLB spokesman said Wednesday that the parties still have five days to come up with a new working pact.
spring training, which was to start last week, has yet to begin because MLB locked out the players on Dec. 2 — the day after the previous five-year CBA expired — and a new labor agreement hasn’t happened. materialized. Late last week, MLB announced that the start of spring training games, originally scheduled for Feb. 26, would be moved “at the earliest” to March 5.
The last work stoppage in MLB that cost the league regular season games was the 1994-95 players’ strike, which resulted in the loss of more than 900 games and the 1994 World Series.
Overall, the union has sought a series of improvements to the sport’s economic structure, with the aim of helping young players who have less lucrative contracts, improving competition between teams, limiting manipulation service time and inject more expense. The league, however, believes players have a fair system with no strict salary caps and sees it as a matter of wealth distribution – which star players disproportionately command more than others.
Sensing heightened urgency, the teams met at Roger Dean Stadium this week, starting on Monday – and the talks could possibly last all week if they prove productive. Not only have negotiating teams from both sides traveled to the spring training home of the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins, but so have at least three club owners and a dozen players who hold leadership positions in the union.
MLB’s latest offer on Wednesday was in one area: a $10,000 increase in the league’s proposed minimum wage, starting at $640,000 and increasing by $10,000 each year. The union demanded a minimum wage of $775,000, which would climb by $30,000 each season. The minimum wage in 2021 was $570,500.
A day later, the union’s proposal centered on two adjustments to its demands on service time manipulation and the amateur draft.
Despite continuing disagreements between the parties, they agreed to meet again on Friday.
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