Work Stoppage

3rd and long in NFL Bill Kline The Morning Call The NBA and its players have issues, but don't expect a work stoppage. Commissioner David Stern has the magic touch. But as sure as another sack of Jay Cutler, you can bet there will be no NFL next September. Owners want an 18-game schedule and a bigger cut of the revenue. Also out there like an uncovered wide receiver is the idea of a rookie wage scale. The players not only won't accept a pay cut, they'll want even more money if the league goes to 18 games.

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.

YORK, Pa. -- Mention Harley-Davidson in these parts, and you hear both pride and envy from the people of this city and region. Pride that Harley's mammoth factory here has a big part in making one of America's most iconic products. Envy that the workers who assemble the company's most popular motorcycles here have such a good deal. Now a plantwide strike has brewed resentment among some in this community, who say the workers already have good salaries and generous pension and health care benefits.

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.