Players Talk About Strike
As the Major League Baseball season enters full swing, players---concerned about the very real possibility of an off-season lockout after this year?s World Series---are beginning to discuss setting a strike deadline for negotiations early this August. Although both sides in the talks are downplaying the likelihood of a strike, it was an August 12 strike date and deadlocked negotiations that led to the early end of the 1994 season and the first cancellation of the World Series in ninety years. If the players finish out the season without striking and without a new contract, management would be able to declare an impasse and implement contract and salary changes like its proposed profit sharing and payroll tax plans without approval by the players? union.
See "Players Talk About Strike", MURRAY CHASS, May 14, 2002