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Negotiations stalled between track, union

By BRANT JAMES

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 7, 2000

A second negotiation session between Tampa Bay Downs management and the Tampa Bay Horseman's Benevolence and Protection Association broke off Wednesday with no contract reached and no meetings scheduled.

Progress was as far off as each side's bargaining position from the other.

Track general manager John Grady called the meeting "generally positive" and said "tentative agreements" were made in certain areas.

But TBHBPA president Leonard Alexander said "nothing constructive" came of the two-hour session.

Of central concern to Alexander is the track's denial of stalls to several members of the TBHBPA for what Grady calls "business reasons."

Alexander sees the denial as reprisal, which violates the spirit of a non-retaliation clause in the one-year deal that expired last spring.

"They don't want to get realistic on many of the major issues, and one of those is stalls," Alexander said. "It seems they really want to maintain this policy as a punishment."

Alexander claims the TBHBPA's office at the Oldsmar track has been closed by management.

TBHBPA officials also are barred from entering the track's barn area, according to associate director Bob Van Worp.

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