WASHINGTON -- Baseball's labor war apparently has spread to a second front.
The Major League Baseball Umpires Association announced yesterday that umpires have been informed they will stop receiving paychecks in January -- the off-season equivalent of a lockout -- if there is no progress toward a new collective bargaining agreement before the current four-year agreement expires Dec. 31.
"They [management] informed us at a meeting on Wednesday that their current intention is to lock us out on Jan. 1," said union director Richie Phillips. "They confirmed that today by telephone."
Management officials tell a different story. Managemen negotiator Bob Kheel said yesterday that a lockout was presented only as one of the ownership options in the event there is not significant progress.
"It's contingent on there not being progress," Kheel said. "Obviously, he [Phillips] isn't optimistic."
Nevertheless, Phillips released a statement yesterday afternoon announcing that the 64-member umpires union had filed a four-part complaint with the National Labor Relations Board accusing the owners of failure to bargain in good faith.
The union charges that "(1) the owners have stated an intent to lock out the umpires on Jan. 1, 1995; (2) the owners have failed and refused to respond to any of the umpires' proposals during )) the current negotiations; (3) the owners have failed and refused to pay to the umpires individual year-end bonuses as part of an overall scheme to impose economic duress and hardship; and (4) the owners have excessively withheld from the umpires' December paychecks in violation of federal and state laws and in furtherance of the scheme to impose economic duress and hardship."
American League president Gene Budig and National League president Leonard Coleman issued statements disputing the charges and claiming that the union's contract demands are excessive and unrealistic.
Coleman revealed that the initial proposal from the umpires called for a 60 percent across-the-board salary increase, a doubling of the postseason bonus pool and a 150 percent increase in the early retirement benefit (which now is $200,000).
"We reviewed their proposals with disbelief," Coleman said, "regarding them as extraordinary in their largess given the realities of the day."
The owners have offered only a cost-of-living salary increase, but they have proposed a "no-strike, no-lockout rollover" while negotiations continue. The union has rejected that proposal.
Negotiations between the leagues and the umpires union have been largely overshadowed by the stalemated labor talks with the players. There has been only one face-to-face bargaining session between Phillips and the league presidents, but both sides already are playing hardball.
Phillips said that the year-end bonuses -- which range from $10,000 to $20,000 -- were due in November, but league officials claim that they are tied directly to work performed in postseason games. The playoffs and World Series were canceled by the players strike.
The umpires did not lose any regular-season pay because of thstrike, but Phillips' NLRB complaint also accuses the owners of double-withholding from December paychecks.
The NLRB already is quite busy with baseball-related business.
The board recently issued a dual complaint against Major League Baseball for withholding $7.8 million in All-Star Game revenues that tra
ditionally are contributed to the players' health and benefits fund. The NLRB also issued a ruling unfavorable to baseball management earlier this week, when it dismissed a charge brought by the owners against against major-leaguers Bobby Bonilla and John Franco for allegedly threatening players with violence if they cross union picket lines.
Though Major League Baseball is using different negotiating teams to handle each of its labor disputes, Phillips feels that the economic losses suffered by the owners during the players strike are having a direct impact on the umpires' negotiations.
"That's clearly what's driving them," Phillips said. "It seems like the only difference between now and four years ago and every time before that is that they always paid us during negotiations. It's akin to the [players] pension thing," he said, referring to the $7.8 million in All-Star Game revenues withheld from the players' benefits fund.
"They actually made the statement to me that they would rather negotiate with people with empty pockets."
A lockout would save the leagues between $500,000 and $600,000 a month in salary at a time when it is uncertain when the services of the umpires will again be needed.
"The negotiations are totally separate," Kheel said. "The onl thing they have in common is the strike, which makes the timing of such substantial increases even less attractive."