As Major League Baseball’s lockout enters its third month, and with minimal progress in negotiations with the MLB Players Association, the league is requesting a federal mediator to assist in reaching an agreement, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation said Thursday, confirming an ESPN report.
Because mediation is a voluntary process, the players association must agree to participate. The union declined to comment on its intentions, though it has not found mediation to be a successful solution in the past.
MLB has been in contact with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, an independent government agency that specializes in helping to resolve labor disputes. The FMCS, led by mediator Scot Beckenbaugh, intervened in the 2012 NHL lockout and played a central role in getting a deal. But former FMCS director William Usery couldn’t bring MLB players and owners together during the 1994-95 strike, with then-union leader Tom Glavine describing his proposals as “outrageous.”
