
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 27, 1995                   TAG: 9503270107
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

NLRB VOTES TO SEEK AN INJUNCTION AGAINST OWNERS

The National Labor Relations Board, convening in an extraordinary Sunday session, voted 3-2 to seek an injunction against major-league baseball owners. The board's decision could bring an end to the 7 1/2-month strike, but it could start a lockout.

With Opening Day only a week away and owners threatening to start the season with replacement players, the sides agreed to resume bargaining tonight in New York after a 23-day break.

Players say they will end the walkout if a judge issues the injunction, which would restore salary arbitration, free-agent bidding and anti-collusion rules.

But many owners are in favor of locking out players if the union ends the strike without an agreement. It's unclear if they can get the necessary 21 votes among the 28 teams to lock out the major-leaguers.

``We'll file tomorrow and we hope to be in a position to request the judge render a decision before the season starts,'' said the board's New York regional director, Daniel Silverman.

Bud Selig, baseball's acting commissioner, said the owners were disappointed in the decision, but ``are encouraged that the board's vote was split 3-2. We believe the clubs' position will prevail in District Court.''

The sides, meanwhile, spent the day discussing a possible bargaining session tonight in New York. Jerry McMorris, the Colorado Rockies' chairman, said he would join Selig and Boston Red Sox chief executive officer John Harrington at the table.

``If something's going to give, it has to give now before we start the season with replacement players,'' McMorris said.

On March 15, the agency's general counsel, Fred Feinstein, filed a complaint against the owners accusing them of illegally eliminating several provisions of the expired collective bargaining agreement.

``This, we believe, is necessary to level the playing field in order that bargaining may proceed fairly,'' Feinstein said. ``Baseball players, like other employees, are entitled to the protection of labor law.''

Silverman, who has completed the paperwork for his case, spent Sunday in his office. After he files the motion today in U.S. District Court in New York, the clerk of the court will randomly select a judge from among the 38 who sit on that court. The selected judge then will schedule a hearing, most likely later this week.

``It's too speculative a process to judge that,'' said Eugene Orza, the union's No.2 official. ``They are federal judges. It's hard to know what their calendars and schedules are. I hope the case is assigned to a judge with a calendar that permits him or her to judge it expeditiously.''

by CNB