The Major League Baseball Players Association, which represents nearly 800 active baseball players, is seeking to add minor league players to its ranks, representing a labor shift that would allow the younger athletes to collectively bargain for better wages and playing conditions.
“Minor leaguers represent our game’s future and deserve wages and working conditions that befit elite athletes who entertain millions of baseball fans nationwide,” MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said in a statement Monday. “They’re an important part of our fraternity and we want to help them achieve their goals both on and off the field.”
The MLBPA sent authorization cards to current minor leaguers Sunday night, asking them to formally designate the union as their official collective bargaining representative. If that measure passes with 30% approval, the union will ask the league for voluntary recognition of their admittance.
If the league and Commissioner Rob Manfred refuse, the decision will go to an election with the National Labor Relations Board. If more than 50% of votes come in favor of joining, the league will be required to acknowledge the union.
“This generation of minor league players has demonstrated an unprecedented ability to address workplace issues with a collective voice,” Harry Marino, the executive director of Minor League Advocates, which has been one of the strongest voices for unionization, said Monday in a statement. “Joining with the most powerful union in professional sports assures that this voice is heard where it matters most — at the bargaining table.”
The staff of Minor League Advocates has all been hired by the MLBPA, uniting their years of work with the resources of the larger organization.
The move, the first in what is expected to be a lengthy process, comes after an offseason of a contentious labor battle between the MLBPA and the league that ended with more playoff teams, increased minimum salaries, a new pre-arbitration bonus pool that will reward the top young players, a universal designated hitter, a limit on the number of times a player can be optioned and a system that will allegedly stop service-time manipulation.
While the MLBPA has advocated for major league players for decades, minor leaguers have been shut out and left to fend for themselves, many being paid below a living wage and only during the season. Minor League Advocates has been instrumental in publicizing this, sharing photos on social media of measly meals and cramped living quarters.
In November, MLB announced a new Minor League Housing Policy that promises to provide free furnished housing for more than 90% of minor leaguers.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has recently taken up the platform of the minor leaguers as well, publicly questioning whether MLB’s limited antitrust exemption is to the benefit of the game and its employees.
