Free Republic

Short-sighted negotiations between Major League Baseball owners and players are sabotaging the chance for a renaissance that the game desperately needs.Each passing day without Major League Baseball stands as a stain on America’s national pastime and represents a sad failure to capitalize on a golden opportunity for the game and the country. Today, we should be distracted from our work, glued to our televisions, computers, or smartphones watching otherwise meaningless spring training games with greater interest than ever before, in anticipation of the return to normalcy of the daily drama of baseball.At a minimum, our ailing nation could use the...

Orlando Police Continue Fight Over Contract Terms POSTED: 3:27 pm EDT October 11, 2004 UPDATED: 3:46 pm EDT October 11, 2004 More than 100 Orlando police officers were reportedly taking part in another protest Monday in their fight with the city over contract terms, according to Local 6 News. Monday's protest is over longevity pay or the annual payment officers receive if they've put in at least five years of service. The amount can range from $600 to $2,200. "They're contractually obligated to pay it even though our contract expired Sept. 30," police union labor spokesman Sam Hoffman said. "You...

LOS ANGELES – Supermarket operators involved in a 4-month-old strike-lockout with Southern California grocery clerks rejected an offer from the workers' union Wednesday to have its members return to work immediately if the markets would agree to binding arbitration. In a joint statement issued shortly after union officials announced their offer, Albertsons Inc., Kroger Co. and Safeway Inc. rejected the union's proposal, calling it an effort to "shift the focus" away from the union's "inability" to negotiate a settlement. "Labor disputes are resolved by face-to-face negotiations with people familiar with the issues," the companies' statement said. "Only the parties to...

Hawks make labor deal difficult By Ken Rosenthal - The Sporting News Ask any player if he wants a strike, and he would say no. Ask most owners, and their answer would be the same. But then there are the "hawks," the hard-line owners who would risk destroying Major League Baseball while claiming they're trying to save it. Padres owner John Moores spoke for the hawks when he said eight to 10 owners were prepared to shut down baseball for an entire season to get the labor agreement they wanted. But a moderate owner, speaking on the condition of...