Ken Moffett

Kenneth Elwood Moffett

• School University of Maryland

• Born September 11, 1931 in Lykens, PA USA
• Died November 19, 2021 in Alexandria, VA USA

Biographical Information

Ken Moffett served as executive director of the Major League Players Association during very troubled times on the labor relations front in the early 1980s, succeeding Marvin Miller. He had gained the players' trust following his successful work as a mediator during the 1981 strike, when the two sides were unable to come to an agreement and the season was in danger of being lost were it not for his work.

The players were convinced that the stalemate was due to the owners' refusal to have serious discussions, as well as Commissioner Bowie Kuhn's refusal to intervene to settle issues, and Moffett's intervention, at the behest of the federal government, saved the day. At the time, Moffett was a mediator working for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service as deputy director. He had first helped to work out an agreement that pushed back a potential strike by one year, then in 1981 worked some shuttle diplomacy, taking proposals back and forth between the two sides who were unable to meet face-to-face, to work out an agreement acceptable to both parties. He was in fact considered one of the most skilled labor mediators of his time, also helping to work out a settlement in the air traffic controllers strike that took place immediately after the baseball strike was settled in the summer of 1981, and a postal workers strike immediately before it. In the air traffic controllers' case, they turned around and refused the agreement, and were famously fired by President Ronald Reagan and their union dissolved in a major landmark in U.S. labor relations history.

In December 1982, he became the second executive director in MLBPA history, after the legendary Miller, and took up his duties the following January 1st. But as skilled as he was as a mediator, and as well-versed as he was in the issues affecting Major League Baseball at the time, he was not a good fit as a labor leader. He was dismissed on November 22, 1983 by the union's executive board and soon replaced by Don Fehr, who was the union's General Counsel. He did have a union background, as the son of a militant coal worker from Pennsylvania, and had worked as a local organizer for the coal minors before turning to mediation work. But his success as a mediator was that he was able to speak to everyone, and at a time when the players, and especially Miller who was still pulling strings in the background, were very militant and constantly at loggerheads with owners, this was seen as a sign of weakness. He then became an advisor to the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians and retired in 2003. He also continued to work as an independent mediator.

He passed away two decades later, aged 90, in 2021, of natural causes after suffering from dementia for the previous six months. His death was only announced a couple of weeks after his passing.

Further Reading

• Associated Press: "Kenneth Moffett, federal mediator of 1981 baseball strike and former MLBPA executive, dies at 90", ESPN.com, December 6, 2021. [1]
• Richard Sandomir: "Ken Moffett, Top Federal Mediator and Union Official, Dies at 90", New York Times, December 5, 2021. [2]