Wage Price Controls

California's senators made a renewed pitch Thursday for temporary price controls on wholesale power supplies, but the response from a top federal energy official and GOP leaders in Congress signaled that they remain unconvinced that the administration should offer help. Democratic Sens.

A federal judge on Thursday blocked Maine's pioneering law aimed at cutting the cost of prescriptions with the threat of price controls, saying it would probably be tossed out as unconstitutional. The preliminary injunction granted by Judge D. Brock Hornby prevents the state from enforcing the law pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents about 100 drug companies.

Two days after the NBA rejected Juwan Howard's seven-year, $98 million contract with the Miami Heat, the team went to court Friday in an effort to protect its interest. Dade County Circuit Judge Joseph Farina issued a temporary injunction "prohibiting Juwan Howard and the NBA from entering into and/or approving an NBA contract" until arbitrators settle the dispute over Howard's contract.

In a victory for Hollywood studios, owners of professional sports clubs and other employers who unite to bargain with employees, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that these industry groups can try to fix wages without fear of being sued under antitrust laws. The 8-1 decision says that workers can seek protection under labor laws or antitrust laws--but not both. Though the case arose from a dispute involving professional football players, the ruling will affect more than 2.

The NFL salary cap could increase by more than $2 million for the 1995 season, Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Assn., said Tuesday. According to preliminary figures, he said that the cap is guaranteed to rise from $34.6 million to $36.5 million. But he added that he expects another increase by the middle of March after a full review is completed of league revenues that would send the cap over $37 million. Player salaries are set at 63% of gross league revenues.

Management's formal removal of the implemented salary cap under pressure from the National Labor Relations Board did not produce dramatic progress Saturday as baseball's labor talks droned closer to President Clinton's Monday deadline. In fact, management negotiators, maintaining their pursuit of a cost-containment mechanism, expressed disappointment and said they saw no progress at all in a union counterproposal to the high-rate luxury tax proposed by the owners on Wednesday.

Divided about their final attempt to save the season, the NHL's Board of Governors on Saturday rejected a contract proposal by the players' union and made a counteroffer that players must accept by noon EST Tuesday or the season will be canceled. The governors voted, 19-7, to reject the proposal players made Wednesday. The Kings were among the seven, but then they unsuccessfully tried to change their vote. The Mighty Ducks were among the majority.

If taxation without representation is tyranny--as famed union leader James Otis first noted during the 1763-64 season--what, then, is no taxation without unrestricted free agency before the age of 32? "Our best offer," was what NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman called it Saturday night in New York, having dispatched the owners' latest counter-counter-counter-prososal to the players with love, kisses, best wishes and a drop-dead deadline of noon Tuesday (EST).

President Ernesto Zedillo on Tuesday unveiled an emergency austerity plan packed with sacrifices for all Mexicans in an effort to overcome the nation's worst economic crisis in more than a decade. He was able to announce the new program only after wresting key concessions from business, labor and other groups that will hold down prices and wages despite a recent, crushing devaluation of the peso.

What began as a struggle over economics has become an emotional battle by Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHL Players Assn. Creating a rallying point is fine, especially when so many of the issues are difficult to grasp. But in igniting players' passion, Goodenow is giving short shrift to reason. Goodenow has inspired a fight over an issue few players understand: the NHL's proposed payroll tax. It is the one issue on which the union refuses to budge.