MLB players launch $1M fund to aid stadium staffs, other workers

The Players Association is expected to deliver the next proposal to Major League Baseball in the coming week. In the meantime, the union stepped up Friday for stadium staffs and other workers who have become collateral damage, launching a $1 million fund for their benefit.

A few hours later, MLB erased more games from the spring training schedule, now through March 17.

The union’s $1 million fund for workers facing financial hardship because of the missed games comes three days after commissioner Rob Manfred announced the first week of the regular season would be canceled. In Friday’s statement, the players also made repeated references to the MLB-orchestrated lockout shutting down the sport, along with the owners "avoiding meaningful bargaining over issues of importance to players, including improving competition, providing fair compensation for younger players and upholding the integrity of MLB’s market-based economic system."

The Players Association plans to work with the AFL-CIO to best allocate the fund’s resources. The cancellation of the season’s first two series will result in a total of 91 missed games, costing the players roughly $20 million in salary for each game removed from the schedule.

"There are a lot of people who make our game great. Many aren’t seen or heard, but they are vital to the entertainment experience of our games," Andrew Miller and Max Scherzer — both members of the union’s executive board — said in a statement. "Unfortunately, they will also be among those affected by the owner-imposed lockout and the cancellation of games. Through this fund, we want to let them know that they have our support."

MLB’s lead negotiator, Dan Halem, and his union counterpart, Bruce Meyer, held an informal meeting Thursday in New York after nine consecutive days of negotiating in Jupiter, Florida, failed to meet Manfred’s Tuesday deadline to avoid canceling games. The biggest obstacle to a deal is the competitive balance tax, and the two sides remain far apart on the payroll thresholds. In MLB’s last offer before the deadline, the CBT stayed flat at $220 million through the first three years of the deal, with the union requesting $238M, $244M and $250M over that same period.

Some owners even balked at Tuesday’s last, best offer, with SNY first reporting that four of them did not approve, believing that $220 million is too high. The Athletic identified those teams as the Angels, Reds, Diamondbacks and Tigers.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.