Bargaining

The 76ers are 11 1/2 games away from Boston in the NBA's Atlantic Division. Denver, tonight's opponent at the Spectrum, is even farther out of first place in the Midwest Division. The NBA Players Association would dearly love to be that close in its early negotiations toward a new collective bargaining agreement with the owners. But it isn't. The two sides are miles apart. "In our initial meeting, we had given the owners our proposal, and now they have given us ours," said Charles Grantham, executive vice president of the players association, arriving in town last night after yesterday's second negotiating session in New York.

The major league baseball talks resumed and the owners reshuffled their bargaining team by appointing Boston Red Sox chief executive officer John Harrington as their lead negotiator. The move, announced yesterday by acting commissioner Bud Selig, came during the first substantive negotiating session between the parties since Sept. 9, five days before owners canceled the World Series for the first time since 1904. Until now, Richard Ravitch had been management's head bargainer. Management downplayed the shift in public comments.

TRENTON - Gov. Christie said Wednesday that he would not negotiate health benefits for public workers through collective bargaining and instead would try to change the law to increase contributions toward health premiums. "We're not negotiating this. We're going for a legislative fix. That's the plan," Christie said at a Statehouse news conference. That drew an immediate comparison to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the Republican who inflamed passions on both sides of the union debate when he moved to limit collective-bargaining rights for most public workers.

So the city and the state are ready to resume negotiations over the future of the Philadelphia schools, as if they had any other choice. Oh, sure, last week's headline-grabbing duel of leaks seemed to threaten the talks, what with the revelations that the state had already worked out a post-takeover contract with Edison Schools Inc. and that the city was exploring various ways to sabotage the state's efforts. But in my mind, there's one word to describe those pyrotechnics.

Baseball's already contentious labor talks took a turn for the worse yesterday as the players flatly rejected management's latest proposal, calling it "a giant step backwards. " Talks between the two sides broke off late in the afternoon, with representatives of each saying they did not expect to hold another session today. As the lockout of players enters its eighth day, there are growing indications that the regular season - and not just spring training - will be delayed. "I want to play baseball more than anything," said pitcher Orel Hershiser of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who attended yesterday's bargaining session.

Wednesday negotiations turned into Thursday acrimony as the NFL and its players union called off a follow-up bargaining session and the league canceled an owners' meeting scheduled for Tuesday in Philadelphia. The decision to cancel Thursday's sit-down illustrated just how far apart the two sides are on a new collective-bargaining agreement, with their current deal set to expire March 3. The players were quick to blame the owners for the breakdown after the two sides met in Washington on Wednesday.

The NFL and its players union have gone from bargaining to legal action in less than a week. The sides sat down to talk Wednesday, but a follow-up meeting was canceled and on Monday the league charged that the NFL Players Association is not bargaining in good faith. The owners' filing with the National Labor Relations Board accuses the players of "surface bargaining" designed to "run out the clock" on the current collective bargaining agreement, which expires March 3. If that date passed and a lockout begins, the players could decertify their union and bring an antitrust suit against the league, which the complaint says is the NFLPA's true goal.

The National Lacrosse League will have a season after all. Nine days after the league canceled its schedule because of a labor impasse, the NLL announced a 7-year collective bargaining agreement yesterday. The deal between the league and the Professional Lacrosse Players' Association begins with the upcoming season and extends through the 2014 season. It is the longest labor deal in the 22-year history of pro indoor lacrosse. The league announced the season had been canceled when the sides could not come to an agreement by a midnight deadline on Oct. 15. "Reaching a long-term collective bargaining agreement with the players was our No. 1 priority in this process," commissioner Jim Jennings said in a statement.

In case anybody had any doubts, more than 200 members of the NHL Players Association affirmed what their player representatives already had said: The union is not willing to accept a collective bargaining agreement that includes a payroll tax. But it seemed clear after yesterday's meeting, maybe the last general membership meeting before that elusive deadline for canceling the season, that talks will resume soon, working around a framework that...

Eleventh-hour negotiations between Lukens Steel and the United Steelworkers of America were to continue today as both sides seek agreement before the current contract expires at 12:01 a.m. tomorrow. "We are conducting intense negotiations, and have been since Monday. I expect we'll be bargaining well into Wednesday," Lukens spokesman Richard Whitmyre said yesterday. "At this point, I don't want to single out any issue as key," he added. A spokesman for Steelworkers Local 1165, which represents 1,150 workers at the Coatesville plant, could not be reached yesterday for comment on the talks.

IF YOU'VE BEEN paying attention to the deadly collapse of the Bangladesh garment factory, you know our dirty laundry just got dirtier. Like a lot of you, I've followed the April 24 tragedy that, at last count, has claimed more than 1,000 lives. I was haunted by the heartbreaking photo of the couple found under debris in a final embrace. I was amazed at the rescue of the seamstress who lived 17 days trapped in the rubble. But it was all from afar. Until I went to my basement to do laundry, and noticed the tags on my clothes.

By Steve Frank Enjoying a fine meal in good company is one of life's great pleasures. But it turned out to be a slender reed on which to hang any hopes for a "grand bargain" to end the impasse over fiscal policy in Washington. It seemed like such good news when a group of Republican senators dined with President Obama recently at the Jefferson Hotel, near the White House. Everyone pushed away from the table more optimistic about being able to reach an agreement to solve the country's financial difficulties.

Buzz: Hey, Marnie, how come young people these days drink such weird stuff? Marnie: Like what, Buzz? Buzz: I went to a holiday dinner hosted by nieces and nephews and there was no respect for tradition. The turkey came with bacon jam instead of cranberry sauce. The wine was from Argentina instead of California. Even the eggnog was made with tequila instead of brandy. Marnie: Well, there's a natural urge for each new generation to experiment and try new things. I bet you'd have liked the wine if you tried it. Argentine wines are terrific, and a Mexican spin on eggnog might be tasty too. Buzz: Why go south of the border?

HISTORY MIGHT show that Andy Reid's Eagles hit rock bottom at 2:15 p.m. Thanksgiving Eve, when Jeff Maile, of Lansdale, went on Craigslist and offered a "great trade" for fans who couldn't stand to watch the team take the field again: His leftover Halloween candy in exchange for tickets to the Monday night game against the Carolina Panthers. "I have 23 Snickers bars (fun size), 5 Snickers Almond bars (fun size), and an unopened bag of Charms Blow Pops (assorted flavors)," wrote Maile, 44, who runs a company that does Internet marketing.

For the second time in four days, representatives from the NHL and the players union had a lengthy meeting as they attempted to end their labor feud and take a step toward a new collective bargaining agreement. The meeting in New York, attended by 13 players, including Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby, lasted more than seven hours Tuesday night. Neither side would disclose what occurred at the meeting. They planned to meet again Wednesday. "The players' view has always been that we ought to keep negotiating until we find a way to get an agreement," Donald Fehr, the NHL Players' Association's executive director, told reporters before the sides met. "You sort of stay at it day by day, so it's very good to be getting back to the table.

The economic optimism of Philadelphia-area holiday shoppers is on the rise, according to research by Deloitte L.L.P., whose findings Thursday echoed a broader surge in consumer confidence nationally. The consulting firm's annual holiday survey of the region's shoppers found that local consumers were cheerier about the national economy and their own personal finances than they were a year ago, though a larger percentage of people said they planned to shop for bargains and sale items.

Before the final games at Citizens Bank Park in September, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. convened meetings with his cadre of lieutenants and scouts to formulate a winter plan. The Phillies brass knew it would stew for a month because there is nothing to do but wait. Free agency remains weeks away and given more time than ever in October to ponder strategy, Amaro could be ready to pounce. Or not. "I think patience is going to be important throughout this offseason," Amaro said after those meetings.

Kitchen and bathroom renovations top the list of improvements for increasing the value of a home. But this labor-intensive remodeling can get expensive. Even without changing room layouts, the simple job of replacing finishes and fixtures can cost more than the price of a new car. What builders call "pull-and-replace" remodeling can run $12,000 to $22,000 for the average 5-by-7-foot bathroom and $29,000 to $52,000 for a 12-by-12-foot kitchen, estimates Rick Matus of Case Design/Remodeling Inc. in Bethesda, Md. "As soon as you start moving plumbing, electrical wiring, and walls," he says, "the costs go up substantially from there.

MADISON, WIS. - Wisconsin school- and government-employee unions on Monday were considering whether to seek new contract talks after a state court threw out a controversial law that restricts public workers' collective-bargaining rights. At least one major union, representing about 4,700 teachers in Madison, said that it will demand new contract negotiations, while others said that they were weighing their options. A Dane County judge ruled Friday that the law, passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2011, violates the school and local employees' constitutional rights to free speech, free association and equal representation.

MADISON, Wis. - A Wisconsin judge on Friday struck down nearly all of the state law championed by Gov. Scott Walker that effectively ended collective-bargaining rights for most public workers. Walker's administration immediately vowed to appeal, while unions, which have vigorously fought the law, declared victory. But what the ruling meant for existing public contracts was murky: Unions contended that the ruling meant they could negotiate again, but Walker could seek to keep the law in effect while the legal drama plays out. The law, a crowning achievement for Walker that made him a national conservative star, took away nearly all collective-bargaining rights from most workers and has been in effect for more than a year.