ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 27, 1996 TAG: 9610280170
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
BASEBALL WILL BURY the hatchet if owners adopt a new labor agreement already approved by the players.
Baseball finally has a labor deal, at least in principle. Now it's up to the owners to decide if they're going to ratify it.
Players union head Donald Fehr said Saturday night he and management negotiator Randy Levine completed the details of a new collective bargaining agreement Thursday in Atlanta.
The five-year deal, which covers 1996 and runs through the 2000 season, would allow for interleague play in 1997. Players would have the option to extend the deal through the 2001 season.
If ratified, it would replace the collective bargaining agreement that expired in December 1993 and put an end, at least for the next few years, to the labor disharmony that caused a 232-day strike in 1994 and 1995.
Players already have given their executive board authority to ratify the agreement, but it's unclear if the required 21 of 28 owners will vote for approval. Acting commissioner Bud Selig has not yet scheduled an owners' meeting to hold a vote.
``The deal is reached,'' Fehr said on the Yankee Stadium field before Game 6 of the World Series. ``Bud just has to decide if he backs it. If he doesn't, he doesn't. There's nothing I can do.''
Players and owners have been fighting since owners reopened the last collective bargaining agreement on Dec. 7, 1992. The strike by the players wiped out the World Series for the first time in 90 years, and ended only after a federal judge issued an injunction forcing owners to honor the rules of the expired agreement.
Selig refused to say whether or not a deal had been reached.
``Obviously the negotiations have been intense,'' he said at his hotel Saturday afternoon, before Fehr made his announcement. ``I've been talking with Randy, and in turn I've been talking with the labor-policy committee.''
Fehr said he had been trying to contact Selig by telephone since Wednesday, but the acting commissioner had not returned the calls.
``I have no idea what they're doing,'' Fehr said. ``My understanding with Bud is that there would be virtually an immediate owners' meeting and I haven't heard from him.''
Fehr and Levine settled on most of the details during three days of hectic meetings from Aug. 9-11, but hard-line owners objected to the direction negotiations had taken and Selig suspended talks for nine weeks.
``Hopefully Bud will come in tonight, recognize the agreement, support his negotiator and recommend the deal,'' Fehr said.
The proposed agreement would create 12 additional players eligible for free agency, including Moises Alou, Alex Fernandez and Mel Rojas. Because the free-agent filing period ends 15 days after the World Series, the union has said the deal would collapse if it's not ratified by then.
``There's nothing more to negotiate. It's all over,'' said Fehr, who leaves Monday for a two-week trip to Japan with a major league all-star team.
If owners don't ratify the agreement, the old one would remain in effect this off-season, Levine would resign and talks would be suspended until owners hire a new negotiator, probably sometime next year.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 linesby CNB