Donald Fehr announced his retirement:
Fehr, who turns 61 next month, said Monday he will retire no later than the end of March.
Subject to approval by the union’s executive board, he will be succeeded by union general counsel Michael Weiner, his longtime heir apparent. Weiner will head negotiations heading into the expiration of the current labor contract in December 2011.
“I have no hesitancy in recommending to the players that he be given the opportunity to do this job,” Fehr said.
His biggest success:
When he first assumed the top job 26 years ago, the average salary was $289,000. It had risen to $2.9 million by last year. But while players made tremendous economic gains and fended off management’s repeated attempts to obtain a salary cap, he has been criticized by some for not agreeing to drug testing until August 2002.
I’ve felt for at least 20 years that if I were ever in trouble, I would want Fehr and his team on my side. The union under Donald didn’t get everything right, but he leaves his players in more of a partnership with the owners than when he took over. Instead of constantly fighting the MLBPA, trying to destroy it, the owners and union are more likely to work together than ever before to keep the game going. Part of that was due to the disaster of the 1994 strike, but part is due to the death of all the old ownership. All the current people running baseball teams know nothing but free agency and arbitration, so it’s not something they want to remove on spite. That makes negotiating a lot easier.
Posted by David Pinto at 5:20 pm | Union | Permalink | 2 Comments
Comments
Leave a Reply
June 22nd, 2009 @ 6:01 pm
Perhaps the MLBPA’s greatest strategic success (from the perspective of economic benefit to the players) was delaying the implementation of a comprehensive drug testing policy. Player salaries soared during during the “Steroid Era.” The lack of testing enabled Union members who perhaps lacked the physical capability to become high earners to sign contracts disproportionate to their legitimate abilities. Fehr also provided the owners with a credible “boogeyman,” a strong and zealous Union advocate, to justify their inability to negotiate a drug policy with any teeth. (Note: The National Labor Relations Act would have precluded the unilateral implementation of such a program by the owners). Everyone made money under this dynamic, the HR Chase of ‘98 returned fans to the game and the baseball reached a level of economic strength it had never achieved. Where would the game be today if it weren’t for Don Fehr?
June 22nd, 2009 @ 6:16 pm
But there was a drug agreement negotiated with the union right after the Pittsburgh drug trials. And Commissioner Peter Ueberroth decided to abrogate the agreement (as was his right) for PR purposes most likely related to running for office. This ticked off the union, and was immediately followed by the owner’s illegal collusion I, II and III which poisoned relations – and then the 1994-95 strike where th owners were dertermined to have not bargained in good faith by the 2nd circuit (Judge Sotomayor).
Alomst a decade of time was wasted addressing the early stages of the illegal PED issue due to criminal activity by MLB.