Labor Agreement

Policy at Food LionA Sept. 23 article in The Sun, titled "A wage law with no teeth," contained some information that is not only misleading, but false.As a vice president of Food Lion Inc., I feel I owe it to my fellow 30,000 stockholders and fellow 60,000 employees to set the record straight.The article cited testimony before a House subcommittee by Food Lion employees regarding allegations that we "routinely forced employees to work off-the-clock."What the article did not say was that our indications from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)

The case often argued against project labor agreements (PLAs) - that they are somehow exclusionary, allegedly favor union contractors and union workers, etc. - misses the mark. The true test of PLAs, which are single-site craft labor agreements used for large construction projects, should not focus on contractors or workers. The true worth and value of PLAs must be examined through the viewpoint of the project owner. After all, the owner is the one paying tens of millions of dollars (or hundreds of millions or even billions)

St. Louis -- At 1 a.m. on Saturday, there was just one final wrinkle in baseball's new labor agreement. Players wanted to raise the luxury tax to some exorbitant amount that probably wouldn't have penalized a single team, not even the New York Yankees. They didn't get their way, the sanctity of the luxury tax was upheld and four days later, when union leaders and the Major League Baseball brain trust gathered to announce the new collective bargaining agreement, they had nothing but love to share.

Laurel track president Joe De Francis and Buddy Mays, president of Local 27 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents about 750 track employees, said last night they are close to reaching a tentative contract agreement that is expected to be presented to the workers for a vote on Tuesday morning."

DETROIT -- While Major League Baseball is hosting its showcase event, the World Series, its representatives have reportedly reached a new, five-year labor deal with the players union to guarantee the show will go on through 2011. The Associated Press, citing a source with knowledge of the negotiations, said a tentative deal was struck during talks Friday and Saturday in New York. Specific details were not included, but the report said lawyers were resolving the language and that it could be made final today or tomorrow - with an announcement from commissioner Bud Selig possibly later this week when the World Series is in St. Louis.

CHICAGO -- Baseball's four-year labor dispute was settled yesterday, when owners voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association and end a battle over the economic future of the game.The owners voted 26-4 to approve the same agreement that they rejected, 18-12, three weeks ago, guaranteeing labor peace through 2000 and reviving a 1997 experiment with interleague play.The deal calls for a stiff luxury tax on player payrolls in excess of $51 million next year, with the threshold rising in 1998 and 1999.

There has been a lot said and written about a project labor agreement (PLA) being implemented for the proposed Maryland offshore wind energy project. When the time arrives for investments to be made in the construction of this critical project, there will be essentially two business models from which the state of Maryland can choose to place its scare resources. The first is a business model that is epitomized by the use of PLAs. PLAs are a market-based tool that offer increased job-site efficiencies, productivity, and on-time, on-budget results through a steady, local supply of the world's safest, most highly trained and productive skilled craft workforce - a workforce that has been developed through almost $1 billion a year in private investments in craft apprenticeship programs.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- US Airways Group Inc.'s pilots union said yesterday that the company's plan to book passengers on other domestic carriers' flights to Japan violates its labor agreement.The complaint follows US Airways' request to the U.S. Department of Transportation to sell seats aboard AMR Corp.'s American Airlines flights from Dallas to Tokyo and Osaka and UAL Corp.'s United Airlines flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Tokyo.The practice, called "code sharing," creates more available flight times to a destination and reduces the hassle that passengers face when making connections on a different airline.

Consensus continues to elude negotiators for Anne Arundel County and the union representing 860 blue-collar county employees. Union representatives rejected Monday the county's latest offer: raises totaling 6 percent over three years. "Our members would not have been able to support that," said Scott Harmon, president of Local 582 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The union asked for a 3 percent raise next year, with items such as the restoration of longevity pay to pre-1995 levels.

The Orioles plunged into the free-agent market yesterday, contacting agents for at least two shortstops, and general manager Pat Gillick, unsure of how the proposed labor agreement may affect the club's payroll, has encouraged veteran designated hitter Eddie Murray to talk to other clubs.Gillick last night confirmed the club's interest in these free agents:Shortstops Mike Bordick and Kevin Elster, another sign the Orioles intend to move Cal Ripken to third base. Bordick, 31, will be a free agent if the owners ratify the proposed labor agreement.