Baseball Players Locked Out After Not Reaching New Contract

(Bloomberg) -- Major League Baseball team owners have initiated a lockout after failing to reach a new collective bargaining agreement with players.

“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,” the MLB said in a statement, referring to a collective bargaining agreement. “Therefore, we have been forced to commence a lockout of Major League players, effective at 12:01am ET on December 2.”

The lockout for now is largely symbolic given that spring training isn't scheduled to commence until February. The regular season is slated to start March 31.

This is baseball's first major labor dispute in a quarter century. That was an acrimonious period that led to a player strike in August of the 1994 season. That resulted in the cancellation of that year's World Series.

The Major League Players Association has said salaries are not keeping up with revenue growth. They are seeking other changes to a system they say delivers more compensation to a handful of stars in free agency than to other players whose salaries are being held back by rules designed to do just that.

The association called the lockout a “dramatic measure, regardless of the timing.”

“It was the owners' choice,” it said in a tweeted statement, “specifically calculated to pressure players into relinquishing rights and benefits, and abandoning good faith bargaining proposals that will benefit not just players but the game and industry as a whole.”

The players added that they were “determined to return to the field under the terms of a negotiated collective bargaining agreement that is fair to all parties.”

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.