Pay cuts. Reductions in all sorts of benefits. Changes in health care.
All these are components of a stripped-down contract that track management has presented its employees in a radical departure from its previous labor negotiations, in 1989, "when the industry was at its peak and we were able to give generous wage increases," said Laurel/Pimlico president Joe De Francis.
But two weeks before that five-year contract expires Dec. 31, the current track proposals are so severe that Buddy Mays, president of Local 27 of the Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents the bulk of track workers, felt it necessary to hold what he termed "a highly unusual meeting" yesterday to inform the membership "exactly what we're up against."
Mays described the mood of the work force as "upset. I know they are concerned with these proposals. But I see unity. I know they expect us to come up with an agreement. But an agreement with dignity. And what we've got now is not going to do it. There's no way they would accept this contract in its present form, and we wouldn't recommend that they do."
Mays distributed a list of 24 points that are at issue in the contract, including a 5 to 10 percent cut in the base wage rate, the elimination of premium pay for Saturdays and holidays and for overtime work on Sundays, reduction in vacation pay and attacks on such sacred cows as the successors clause, which would void the contract if the tracks were to be sold, and combining seniority status at Laurel and Pimlico into one list.
"There's no question that the tracks have a financial problem," Mays said. "But to what extent is what we need to know. We have our own accountants checking out their records and have seen the arrangement they have with the bank. It does look like they will start to make some money this year. But they can't expect our membership to pay for the mistakes they've made in the past. The whole problem is trying to figure out what direction the horse racing industry is going in, and I don't think they know. The main concern is casino gambling, and it's going to come."
Mays said that five years ago "we rewrote the entire contract. Then there were a lot of changes in the industry [the introduction of multi-card simulcasting and off-track betting] and we wrote in modifications. Now they want us to rewrite the entire contract once again."
De Francis said: "I would like to explain all the changes we've asked for from A to Z. But the newspaper isn't the place to do it. There is enormous uncertainty where the business is going, such as the threat of casinos and the continuation of the shortage of horses. But no one benefits from a work stoppage. I hope the employees, as well as the jockeys in their negotiations, see how damaging job actions have been in baseball and hockey.
"In 1989, the union came to us and said it was their turn to share in the largesse of the industry in the '80s and we did. Now we're going to the union after coming off a very difficult period, not only for horse racing in Maryland, but in the nation. We're in the leaner and meaner '90s and we're asking them to make concessions. It's the ebb and flow of business cycles."
Mays said he is hopeful the tracks and the employees will find common ground.
One area is health care. The current Blue Cross/Blue Shield program, which has skyrocketed in cost from about $1.2 million in 1989 to $2.6 million in 1994, is being changed to a managed care program. "It's one area we've found that is a real issue in just about every contract we are now working on," Mays said.
"It's still early in the negotiations. We've found with the tracks that everything waits until the last minute. So, there is time to work things out."
Full-fledged negotiations are expected to take place Tuesday. By the end of the week, Mays added, "we should have a handle on which direction things are going in."
NOTE: The familiar Darby Dan Farm fawn and dark brown silks -- which have been carried to victory by Little Current in the 1974 Preakness, Sunshine Forever in the 1988 Washington D.C. International and as recently as two years ago by Low Tolerance in the Snow Goose Handicap -- turned up again yesterday in a Maryland winner's circle.
Darby Dan's 4-year-old daughter of Alydar, Triumph at Dawn, caught early leader Queen Suite in the final yards of the seven-furlong race and scored a three-quarters-of-a-length victory in the $50,000 Straight Deal Stakes at Laurel.
Edgar Prado rode the winner.
Triumph At Dawn now heads to Florida with trainer Jimmy Toner's eight-horse New York-based string but could return to
Laurel in February for the Barbara