Judge Sotomayor's Injunction Ends the Longest Strike in Sports History

On March 31, 1995, U.S. District Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor issued an injunction against Major League Baseball's owners, ordering them to restore free agency and salary arbitration. The ruling effectively ended the players' strike that had begun on August 12, 1994, wiped out the World Series for the first time since 1904, and lasted seven and a half months.

The National Labor Relations Board had filed an unfair labor practices complaint against the owners, alleging they had unilaterally implemented new economic terms after negotiations broke down. Sotomayor heard arguments from both sides and took only fifteen minutes to rule in the players' favor. She found that the owners had violated the National Labor Relations Act by imposing a salary cap and eliminating arbitration without reaching a legitimate impasse in bargaining.

Players had voted on March 29 to return to work if a federal court backed the NLRB complaint. Sotomayor's ruling two days later gave them what they needed. It took the owners another 48 hours to accept the union's offer, and the 1995 season began on April 25 with a shortened 144-game schedule.

The strike had cost players an estimated $230 million in lost wages and cost owners hundreds of millions in lost revenue. Fan attendance dropped sharply when play resumed and didn't fully recover for years. The 1994 Montreal Expos, who had the best record in baseball when the strike began, never got to play in the postseason. Several small-market franchises faced financial distress.

Sotomayor's ruling didn't resolve the underlying labor dispute. A new collective bargaining agreement was not reached until late 1996. But the injunction returned baseball to the field and preserved the salary arbitration and free-agency structures that players had fought for since the 1970s.