1. Briefly, what are the major developments in the history of the labor-management relationship within Major League Baseball?
According to Lewicki, Barry & Saunders (2010), the major developments of labor-management relationship within Major League Baseball (MLB) started in the late 1960s and were characterized by the ongoing disputes between the owners and the players that resulted in the following hard bargaining agreements, work stoppages and lockouts:
a) 1st and 2nd Basic Agreement – was a contract that 1) significantly increased the minimum salary of all the players and 2) established a protocol that players could follow to air their grievances. The agreements came as a response mechanism that was used by U.S. owners who wanted to …show more content…

g) 8th Basic Agreement – the owners realized that competition and financial disparity was hurting their profits while salary arbitration was driving up salary levels. They wanted salary arbitration eliminated, the salary cap introduced, free agency eligibility standards lowered and television revenue split equally with the players. However, the MLBPA rejected these proposals and the players went on strike for 232 days. The 8th Basic Agreement was agreed upon in late 1996 and it introduced the revenue sharing program that was put on hold in the 7th Basic Agreement but did not offer the owners the salary cap they had sought.
h) 9th Basic Agreement – the Curt Flood Act was passed in 1998 to reduce the chance of future strikes by making it possible for players to sue the owners if labor negotiations stalled. The issue of contraction was also put on hold after owners tried to eliminate competition and financial disparity by contracting/eliminating two teams from the MLB. The 9th Basic Agreement was reached by the two parties to avert another strike and it introduced the luxury tax as a way to slow down the rate at which the players’ salaries was rising as well as save the upcoming post season.
i) 10th Basic Agreement – the upcoming negotiations were to take place to due to the 2002 contract that was set to expire at the end of 2006. However, a dark cloud loomed over the upcoming