BASEBALL LABOR TALKS : Players’ Newest Proposal Doesn’t Include a Ceiling

The baseball players’ union completed the framework of a multifaceted proposal Wednesday that it will deliver to the owners in Rye Brook, N.Y., Saturday, the final attempt to reach a negotiated settlement before the owners declare an impasse and implement their salary-cap proposal next Thursday.

Details of the new proposal, reached in deliberations with more than 80 players in Atlanta over the last three days, were not revealed, but it does not include the one item owners have wanted most: a ceiling on cost controls, be it a straight cap or a high-rate tax plan that includes a payroll ceiling.

“This doesn’t give them a cap, nor do they expect us to offer one because they know our view on artificial restraints,” union leader Donald Fehr said from Atlanta.

“But we’re giving them a number of new and different elements designed to address all of the stated concerns of the (owners) regarding the future financial health of the sport and which require a commitment of both players and clubs to the long-term interests of the sport.

“If they’re interested in bargaining, the road map is there. If not, they’ll dismiss it like they have everything else we’ve proposed. I won’t make a prediction, but we feel good about it. We think it has a good shot.”

Devoid of a cap and/or the elimination of salary arbitration, as the owners have also proposed, the union’s optimism probably translates to wishful thinking.

Sources said the proposal includes a 5.33% tax on the club’s with the highest revenues and payrolls, generating about $58 million to be shared with the smaller-revenue clubs. The rate is up from a 1.6% union proposal in September that generated about $30 million, but is far short of the owners’ tax plan, which includes a payroll ceiling and tax of more than 100%.

The union proposal retains free agency and arbitration in their current forms, but also calls for joint marketing and capital ventures, including elements of a suggestion made by Baltimore Oriole owner Peter Angelos, who has said some of the funds shared by the clubs should be designated for stadium construction in cities where a new stadium would make a difference. If accepted, the proposal would also give the union a partnership voice in the hiring of a commissioner and the signing of TV contracts, among other major industry decisions.

Said Kansas City pitcher David Cone: “The key issue is the taxation plan. We feel we’ve come a long way toward trying to make a compromise. . . . We know this isn’t the time to make a proposal that will be rejected and not lead to anything.”