Impasse

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton predicted yesterday that an agreement would be reached on balancing the federal budget in seven years, saying, "I am confident we can end this impasse."But a 67-page working document used in the negotiations and made available yesterday reflected hundreds of disagreements that, participants acknowledged, cannot be resolved in a matter of days.In his weekly radio speech yesterday, Mr. Clinton said, "Our talks are making progress," and he maintained that both sides shared the goal of "reaching an agreement as soon as possible."

At the same time Mayor Martin O'Malley is actively courting organized labor's support for his re-election, he has been embroiled in contract negotiations with two city workers unions and declared an impasse in the talks yesterday. The impasse declaration is the city's first in more than 20 years with the unions and underscores the two sides' inability to agree on a main contract issue - what city workers should pay for health care. An impasse procedure imposes a third-party mediator in the stalled negotiations but does not offer any binding resolution, just a recommendation for an agreement.

Suppose you were an employer whose employees were represented by a union. Now suppose that the labor laws you bargain under say that when the parties reach an impasse, you, the employer, get to impose your final offer. What would you do?When I asked my 12-year-old daughter this, she said, "Well, duh! I'd try to get to an impasse so I could impose whatever I wanted. Actually, I'd offer things I really wanted and that the union would hate. That way I'd get my way, and we'd be at an impasse."

THE ISSUE: After state education officials declared contract negotiations at an impasse, the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County, which represents teachers and other school-based employees, voted last week to "work to rule" - performing all duties required by their contract during the regular workday but no longer volunteering time for tutoring or extracurricular activities for which they are not paid. Union officials requested the impasse designation because they say proposed cost-of-living increases fall far below what neighboring jurisdictions are offering.

Schooling improves when class size goes down and wor- sens when it goes up. Whether the top gun is called superintendent or CEO doesn't change a single test score.The budget impasse makes outsiders like Colin Powell, Steve Forbes, Ross Perot and Jesse Jackson look better every day.The Russians have finally put a definitive end to the Chechen rebellion. Again.The NFL vote on the Browns was put off to overtime to hype the suspense.

An impasse in the upgrade to the Harford County Emergency BTC Operations Center in Bel Air has been resolved and construction is ready to begin, according to U.S. Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a 2nd District Republican.The county is required to upgrade and improve its EOC, which was built in 1962 and refurbished in 1984, according to the guidelines of the Army's Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program. The money for the project already had been allocated: $2.1 million from the federal government and $1.5 million from the state and Harford County.

An arbitrator will begin listening today to the differences between the Board of Education and teachers union that led to an impasse in contract negotiations.This is the second time in three years outside help has been needed to settle issues between the two sides.The $383.4 million school operating budget, recently forwarded to the County Council by County Executive Robert R. Neall, includes money for step or merit increases for employees. Each step amounts to about a 2 percent pay raise, and about 54 percent of the Board of Education's 6,767 employees would qualify to receive them.

RYE BROOK, N.Y. -- Baseball owners may have suffered a significant setback in their attempt to implement a new economic system when the National Labor Relations Board announced yesterday that it soon will issue a pair of complaints charging management with unfair labor practices.The complaints both stem from the owners' decision to withhold $7.8 million in All-Star Game revenues that traditionally go into the Major League Baseball Players Association's pension and benefits fund.The announcement couldn't have come at a worse time for the ownership bargaining committee, which has been using the threat of a declared impasse to pressure the union into accepting a drastically altered player compensation system.

RYE BROOK, N.Y. -- The baseball labor dispute edged closer to a declared impasse last night, as it became clear that the players would respond negatively to the latest ownership contract proposal.Management officials had expressed optimism Sunday that their modified taxation plan could open the door to a negotiated settlement in baseball's protracted labor dispute, but that was before the complicated proposal was picked apart by union economists.The Major League Baseball Players Association studied the proposal overnight and concluded that it was a salary cap in sheep's clothing.