Executive Council to Make Final Offer

Baseball’s executive council, meeting in Milwaukee, authorized lead labor negotiator Randy Levine to make a “last and final” offer to the players union “whenever he feels he needs to,” said Atlanta Brave president Stan Kasten, a member of the council.

Negotiations are scheduled to resume in New York on Friday. Sources said again that Levine plans to present a final offer next week.

If there is no progress, the owners will then ask U.S. District Judge Sonia Sotomayor to lift the injunction she ordered in March 1995, which ended the 232-day players strike and reinstated the expired work rules.

Lifting of the injunction would allow owners to declare an impasse and unilaterally impose new work rules.

However, a management source said the main reason for lifting the injunction would be to force the union into serious negotiation without protection of the status quo.

The union has threatened to strike during the October playoffs or next spring if the owners implement, although it is uncertain whether a majority of players would support another stoppage.

An agent familiar with the negotiations said a compromise on the pivotal issue of a payroll tax and other key points has been within reach for several weeks, but the main hurdle has been the reluctance of union head Donald Fehr, carrying the weight of the union’s successful history and bitter victories in previous negotiations, to make any further concessions on issues pertaining to salary control and market limitations. The agent added, however, that Fehr is planning to extend the union’s position on Friday.