It is unlikely the players association will take kindly to Manfred’s tactic.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, who is the de facto chief collective bargaining negotiator for the 30 MLB owners, appears as if he is ready to bust the Major League Baseball Players Association in the upcoming collective bargaining talks. Simply put, he wants to pit the everyday rank and file players against the stars making money and their agents. Divide and conquer and maybe, just maybe Major League Baseball owners will get their salary cap. Manfred is also banking on a National Labor Relations Board who will side with owners if the players file a labor negotiations complaint against the owners.
“There seems to be kind of a mismatch between what we see at the union leadership level and what the players are thinking,” Manfred said. “The strategy is to get directly to the players. I don’t think the leadership of this union is anxious to lead the way to change. So we need to energize the workforce in order to get them familiar with or supportive of the idea that maybe change in the system could be good for everybody.” Manfred is not going to find a willing negotiating partner. Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Association Tony Clark responded to Manfred calling his comments a “sales pitch” that is “full of misleading or downright false statements. At a time of resurgent attendance, record revenues, and increasing franchise values, MLB should be focused on further promoting our sport. Instead, their stated plan is once again to try to divide players from each other and their union in service of a system that would add to the owners’ profits and franchise values, while prohibiting clubs from fully competing to put the best product on the field for the fans and limiting player compensation, guarantees and flexibility.” The negotiations have not started but venom is pouring out.
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