(Reuters) -Major League Baseball locked out its players on Thursday after failing to reach terms on a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) ahead of a midnight deadline.
The decision halts all player activity as it relates to their clubs including free-agent signings, trades and use of team facilities.
“Despite the league’s best efforts to make a deal with the Players Association, we were unable to extend our 26 year-long history of labor peace and come to an agreement with the MLBPA before the current CBA expired,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said https://www.mlb.com/news/featured/a-letter-to-baseball-fans.
“Therefore, we have been forced to commence a lockout of Major League players, effective at 12:01 a.m. ET on Dec. 2.”
It marks the first work stoppage in MLB since the players’ strike of 1994-95.
That labor dispute forced a premature end to the season, delayed the start of the following year’s campaign and turned off fans as attendances plummeted when play finally resumed.
“The shutdown is a dramatic measure, regardless of the timing,” the players’ association (MLBPA) said https://twitter.com/MLBPA_News/status/1466275975474421761/photo/1.
“It was the owners’ choice, plain and simple, specifically calculated to pressure players into relinquishing rights and benefits and abandoning good faith bargaining proposals.”
Among the main problem areas, owners and players did not agree on service time toward free agency, playoff expansion, a luxury tax and possible salary floor and several proposed rule changes, media reports said.
The 2022 season is not scheduled to begin until March while players are scheduled to report to ‘Spring Training’ in mid-February.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto and Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
