Work Stoppage

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."

Although a strike might soon stop the major-league baseball season, there are different ways to keep the action going. Kids can continue to watch their favorite players hit, catch and throw through video games.Baseball video games continue to add features and improve their three-dimensional graphics.Some games let you see diving catches in the outfield. Others let you match wits with the help of 1993 statistics.For Super Nintendo, the favorite baseball game among kids appears to be Super Bases Loaded 2. It features top 3-D graphics and different camera angles for following the ball.

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.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- South Africa is braced for two days of paralysis this week as millions of black workers stage a nationwide strike aimed at forcing the white government to give way to black rule.Thousands of police officers have been dispatched to the nation's most volatile black townships, and government officials have warned of possible violence between supporters and opponents of the strike.On the eve of the mass work stoppage, observers from the United Nations arrived in the country, saying they hoped their presence would contribute to a peaceful climate.

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.