NEW YORK, Nev., Aug. 1 (UPI) -- As talks continued between baseball owners and players Thursday, the negotiating committee for the players union said it had set a conference call for Friday as a preliminary step toward possibly announcing a strike date.
The conference call is a prelude to calling a meeting of the executive board, which could announce as early as next week that it's setting a strike date for some time between Aug. 16 and Sept. 16.
Don Fehr, the union's executive director, said that any of baseball's 30 player representatives may take part in the Friday call. The main members of the union's negotiating committee include Fehr, his brother Steve, Gene Orza and Michael Weiner, both associate general counsels for the union.
The executive board can set a strike date on a subsequent conference call. A formal meeting, though, would be called before the 750 players vote on a work stoppage.
"Our greatest hope is that it doesn't have to be considered, and that we get a deal done before that happens," Fehr said.
Lawyers for Major League Baseball and the players association met for about an hour in New York on Wednesday. The discussion points were MLB's minimum player salary and the union's benefit proposal, a $500 million package that was put on the table Monday.
Rob Manfred, MLB's vice president of labor relations and human resources, said the parties had moved closer on both proposals. None of the core economic issues was discussed.
