Work Stoppage

The state Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that more than 1,300 workers who participated or assisted in a one-month strike against Giant Food Inc. were not entitled to unemployment insurance.In an opinion reversing two lower court rulings, the state's highest court ruled that, because the strike constituted a "stoppage of work," workers were disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits.The decision marks a victory for Giant, the Landover-based subsidiary of Royal Ahold NV, the Netherlands-based international food retailer.

Baltimore dockworkers narrowly approved a new five-year local contract last night, averting a possible work stoppage that could have diverted badly needed cargo from the port.Reversing an overwhelmingly negative vote of one week ago, members of the International Longshoremen's Association here voted 456 to 421 to accept the agreement, which includes a controversial $4,000 cash payment in exchange for eliminating the union's sacred guaranteed annual income program.Dockworkers also accepted cuts in wages and the size of work gangs for break-bulk cargo, though the cuts in gangs were less than those in the original contract rejected Oct. 2.Work continued on the docks after the union rejected the pact by a 736-to-129 vote last week, with both sides agreeing to extend the old contract while talks resumed.

Talks between dockworkers and port employers resumed in Baltimore yesterday with both sides appearing determined to avert a work stoppage.After the resounding rejection of the proposed local contract on Wednesday, management and labor agreed to extend the existing contract and allow longshoremen to return to their jobs yesterday while negotiations continue."

The 1995 baseball season is scheduled to begin in 12 days, but major-league players remain on strike and 27 of the 28 major-league clubs are preparing to start without them. The labor dispute that wiped out the last two months of the 1994 season and forced the cancellation of the playoffs and World Series is threatening to turn a once-flourishing industry into a mockery, but there have been no real negotiations for the past two weeks.So where does baseball go from here? Seven months into the longest work stoppage in the history of major professional sport, there still are more questions than answers about the future of the game and the likely outcome of this war between the players and owners.

The Great Baseball Strike of 1994 is only in its second week, but time already is running out on the regular-season schedule.There may be six weeks left until the scheduled start of baseball's new eight-team postseason tournament, but the season would have to resume much earlier than that to rekindle the excitement of the stretch run and retain the integrity of the six division races.What is the point of no return?No one is willing to say quite yet, because no one wants to concede that the 11-day-old work stoppage might stretch into September or beyond, but it will become a relevant question if the collective bargaining negotiations remain stalled for another week or two."

The Major League Baseball Players Association did not set a (( strike date yesterday, but union representatives left little doubt that there will be a labor confrontation if ownership presses forward with its plan to implement a revenue-based salary cap.The executive board of the players union met at the O'Hare Airport Hilton yesterday to discuss the ownership proposal, which calls for a salary cap based on a 50-50 revenue split. Ownership claims that the cap is necessary to save the game from financial calamity, but the players have -- so far -- refused to consider anything that would inhibit their earning potential.

Brian Jordan, one of two young men convicted of shooting a South Carroll High School student to death five years ago, has been living in Maryland's toughest prison since February, transferred there after inciting a prison work stoppage.Jordan's transfer to the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center -- or "Supermax" -- came less than two months after he asked Carroll Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. to reduce his sentence.According to Division of Corrections records and recent letters from Jordan's attorney and State's Attorney Thomas E. Hickman, Maryland Penitentiary officials had Jordan moved to the super-high-security prison Feb. 6.Inmates in the penitentiary participated in a prisonwide strike Jan. 31, records show.

ANNAPOLIS -- State employees derisively call it "Schaefer time," the extra 4 1/2 hours a week two-thirds of them will have to begin working without extra pay starting Wednesday.Demoralized by the absence of a pay raise this year, a cut in the state's health insurance subsidy and now this, many of them say they may "put in" the extra hours Gov. William Donald Schaefer has ordered, but they may not work them."It'll be like a work stoppage -- 10 minutes to answer the phone. It takes longer when you're on 'Schaefer time,' " said Connie Powell, an angry State Highway Administration employee.

Yesterday's work stoppage by Local 953 of the International Longshoremen's Association -- a k a Richie Hughes' strike -- is clearly a serious blow to the port of Baltimore. But it also highlights some tough issues concerning the appropriate role of the news media (and other parties) in disseminating negative information -- "bad" news, if you will.Mr. Hughes, leader of the port's unionized clerical workers, decided Monday morning to reject the local contract terms being offered him by management negotiators representing the Steamship Trade Association.

Because of an editing error, an article yesterday in The Sun about port negotiations said Baltimore longshoremen earlier this year rejected a midnight start for work on ships. In fact, it was longshoremen in Hampton Roads, Va., who had rejected a midnight start, although they changed their minds after a meeting Wednesday.Baltimore longshoremen agreed to a midnight start as part of the tentative contract they will vote on tomorrow.Negotiators trying to avert a strike in the port of Baltimore reached a tentative accord with four longshoremen's locals early yesterday morning but still needed to reach agreement with a fifth local before the expiration of the contract at midnight last night.

NFL owners, meeting in Atlanta, voted unanimously yesterday to opt out of the collective bargaining agreement they signed with the players union in 2006. This would mean that the NFL would conduct its business with no changes for 2008 and 2009. There would be substantial changes in 2010. And since the deal would end in 2011 instead of 2013, there would have to be a new contract to avoid the possibility of a work stoppage then. As usual with labor situations, the big picture is complex and the details infinitely more so, so let's try to sum it up. Why has this happened?

Hollywood is a land built on illusion, so maybe it shouldn't surprise anyone that the film industry painted a record-breaking economic picture this summer - or that the portrait may not be as pretty as it first appears. For the season that concluded Labor Day weekend, ticket sales were up 11 percent over last year, to $4.15 billion. That total set an all-time record, besting the previous best summer - 2004's $3.86 billion - by 8 percent. For the first time, Hollywood films earned more than $4 billion in domestic box-office revenue.

Pedro Reyes, a paralegal at a firm specializing in immigration, said he is weary of turning away most would-be clients. Illegal immigrants who are unfamiliar with the nation's convoluted legal system are shattered, Reyes said yesterday, when he explains to them that they are ineligible for what they crave most: a green card and the privileges of legal residency it holds. With a Colombian flag draped from his belt loop and an American flag held high above his head, Reyes joined demonstrators at Baltimore's Patterson Park, urging reform that would guarantee a path to U.S. citizenship for the nation's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.

Sergio Vargas won't lay bricks at his construction firm today. Rosa Gauman will not change bedsheets at a downtown hotel. And loyal customers hoping to savor the mole sauce at Arcos, a Mexican restaurant in Upper Fells Point, will have to wait until tomorrow. Immigrant workers nationwide have threatened to turn today - International Workers' Day - into a display of defiance with a work stoppage and boycott to symbolize the reliance of the U.S. economy on immigrant labor. In doing so, they will call for reform that would guarantee a path to U.S. citizenship for the nation's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.

On the eve of its first playoff action in almost two years, the NHL is bathing in the glow of fan adulation, emerging superstars and competitive parity. The league got much of what it wished for in its first season back after losing 2004-05 to a work stoppage. Rule changes produced higher scoring. Fans returned in greater numbers than ever. New stars came out in cities that seemed to need them. Competitive division races produced playoff matchups with no clear favorites. Amid all the cheer, one caveat lingers.

Even as the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons face off on the NBA's grandest stage, a possible work stoppage casts a shadow on the league's horizon. As recently as the All-Star break in February, commissioner David Stern and union chief Billy Hunter said they foresaw smooth contract negotiations that could wrap before the regular season ended. But in recent weeks, league officials, union representatives and agents spoke less optimistically, with some saying a long, crippling stoppage was possible.

The euphoria in Washington over the likely return of Major League Baseball is such that it hardly bothers anyone that the Montreal Expos team they're inheriting has been languishing in last place all season. The Expos, who have been owned by Major League Baseball's other 29 teams for the past three years, lost their final home game last night, giving them a 65-94 record with three road games left in the season. Their best player is second baseman Jose Vidro, a three-time All-Star, but he's been hobbled with a knee injury, leaving a pretty unheralded roster.

Pro Basketball Sources: R. Wallace to return to Pistons for five years, $57M Free-agent forward Rasheed Wallace has agreed to a five-year contract worth $57 million and will return to the NBA champion Detroit Pistons, two league sources told the Associated Press yesterday. Wallace, 29, who made $17 million last season, was acquired from the Atlanta Hawks in a three-team deal on Feb. 19 and helped the Pistons win the Eastern Conference title and then upset the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.

NEW YORK - Baseball's troubled labor history has turned optimism into an endangered outlook, but there were indications last night that the players and owners were closing in on a new labor agreement. Commissioner Bud Selig arrived in Manhattan yesterday afternoon to join the negotiations and the two bargaining teams moved back and forth between the offices of Major League Baseball and the players union to exchange ideas and work on contract language. There still appeared to be a gap between each side's proposals on increased revenue sharing and a luxury tax plan, but management officials seemed more confident that the remaining differences would be worked out before the union strike date threatens tomorrow's games.

Orioles catcher Brook Fordyce still was wiping the sleep from his eyes yesterday morning, his body fatigued after a late return flight from Minnesota, when the news hit him like the piercing ring of an alarm clock. It's 10 a.m. Do you know where your next paycheck is? Like every other team, the Orioles learned that the executive board of the players association had set the strike date for Aug. 30. Major League Baseball was moving toward its ninth work stoppage in the last 30 years. Now there's an alarming development.