Player Assn. to Challenge the Dodgers : The Drug-Test Clause in Yeager’s Contract Raises Union’s Ire

Eugene Orza, legal counsel to the Major League Players Assn., said Friday that the union would definitely challenge the drug testing clause in Steve Yeager’s 1986 contract with the Dodgers, and any other contract including a similar clause.

“I can’t say what form (the challenge) will take, but our position hasn’t changed,” Orza said. “The clause is illegal and unacceptable.

“It represents another attempt to circumvent the collective bargaining process and the collective agreement (between owners and players).

“It’s also representative of a widespread policy and not at all an individual situation.”

Orza alluded to the owners’ recent decision to dissolve a joint drug agreement with the union and to recommend, through their Player Relations Committee, that every club include a testing clause in new contracts and to withhold a salary guarantee if the player doesn’t accept the clause.

The union, in response to the termination of the joint agreement, has already filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board.

Orza said that the grievance could be amended to include a challenge to Yeager’s contract.

Yeager’s agent, Steve Kaller, said Thursday that neither he nor his client had a problem with the drug clause and that they would fight an attempt to void the contract.

Orza said he couldn’t comment on that.

“What it comes down to is that historically we have opposed the test clause and we will continue to,” he said.

That may not be Yeager’s biggest problem, however. Orza said that Yeager’s contract is suspect for another reason as well, since the catcher has waived his 5-and-10 rights.

Any player who has spent 10 years in the major leagues, the last five with the same club, has the right of approval over trades. The 5-and-10 can be waived, Orza said, but generally only when a trade is made, not when the contract is negotiated.

Orza said that a subcommittee of the union’s Executive Board voted Thursday to present the matter to the full board in December.

“The contract itself contains a clause to the effect that there is no contract unless the association approves it and that it must be approved before Nov. 20,” he said. “There is no way this can happen now. In effect, Yeager doesn’t have an existing contract.”

Kaller, who talked to Orza twice by phone Friday, said he was optimistic that the situation could be worked out short of the union’s filing a grievance or refusing to approve the contract.

“I would think there are more pressing issues in baseball than the fact that a 38-year-old player in the twilight of his career has waived his 5-and-10, but the union feels this is something it has to pursue” Kaller said.

“At this point it’s out of Steve’s and my control. We feel we have a valid contract. If the union says the 5-and-10 has to be reinstated or the language rewritten, then we’ll have to go back to the Dodgers to find out what their response is.”

Kaller said he would be talking to Donald Fehr, the union’s executive director, Monday, seeking his assistance in the pursuit of an agreement on the 5-and-10 issue.