Labor relations experts following MLB negotiations from afar

CHICAGO (AP) — Allen Sanderson grew up in Idaho. He played high school baseball and worked for a minor league team in Twin Falls, providing a ride home for Dick Allen long before he became a feared slugger with the Philadelphia Phillies.

That's part of how Sanderson sees baseball's labor strife, as a longtime baseball fan. But he also follows along from a different perspective, one of a sports economist at the University of Chicago.

“What is the right division between the owners and the player? How much should the players get? How much should the owners get?" Sanderson said. "There's no right answer to that question. There may well be to you making French fries at McDonald's or something like that. There probably is a right answer to that question about what's a reasonable amount in a competitive marketplace for you to earn.

“But once you're in the sports world or the entertainment world, something like that, you know just all bets are off. It's largely a function of how well can I negotiate our side in this."

That last part isn't going very well at the moment, not for Major League Baseball or its locked-out players.

Baseball’s ninth work stoppage reached 96 days on Monday. It is the sport’s first labor conflict to cause games to be canceled since the 1994-95 strike wiped out the World Series for the first time in 90 years.

The sides met for 95 minutes on Sunday, largely restating their positions to each other. Negotiations broke off last week after nine days of talks in Jupiter, Florida, and Commissioner Rob Manfred canceled the first two series of the season for each team, a total of 91 games.

While the sides try to chart a path forward, hoping to get baseball back on the field, some experts in labor relations and sports business are watching the dispute from an...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Labor-relations-experts-following-MLB-16983420.php