(How Much) is the Law to Blame for Baseball's Turbulent Labor Relations?

Abstract

Three bodies of law have had significant impact on labor relations in professional sports including baseball. The first, antitrust law, was not available in baseball until 1998. Players in the National Football League used antitrust law effectively against owners in the 1980s, but it is now available only to players outside a formal collective bargaining relationship. The second, National Labor Relations Act, has been used by both owners and player unions to achieve specific objectives, but doctrines developed under the statute have contributed to posturing and to crisis bargaining. The third, a specialized contract law developed for interpreting and enforcing collective bargaining agreements, has generally worked fairly well in professional sports, particularly the principles encouraging the use of arbitration.