In a bombshell, the Major League Baseball Players Association has officially undertaken efforts to unionize minor leaguers. In the press release, Tony Clark said, “They’re an important part of our fraternity and we want to help them achieve their goals both on and off the field.”
Jeff Passan of ESPN noted the MLBPA has undertaken the step of sending voting cards to minor leaguers. The voting cards enable them to vote whether they would want to join the union.
In the event 30% of minor leaguers sign the cards, an election would be triggered. From there, a simple majority vote (greater than 50%) wound force Major League Baseball to recognize the union.
This does come on the heels of a changing landscape for minor leaguers. They won a class action suit seeking damages for insufficient wages. This eventually led to a settlement.
We have seen the minor leagues contract in recent years. That meant a lot fewer jobs being available.
Minor leaguers are now provided housing with some question over players with families. Wages were increased but are still far short of a living wage at many levels.
We have also seen in recent years Major League Baseball use the minor leagues as a testing ground for potential rule changes. Through all of this and more, Major League Baseball has the ability to do what they want to minor leaguers because they don’t have a proverbial seat at the table.
Obviously, this effort by the MLBPA would change that. Moreover, it would change the dynamics of the union. On that point, it should be noted this gambit was spearheaded by union leadership and did not inform players prior to sending the voting cards.
As noted by the Washington Post, there are upwards of 6,500 minor league players in any given season. That would grow the MLBPA by at least five times.
This would create complexities within the union and in terms of the collective bargaining progress. That said, this process has its own challenges.
Between the anticipated measured by MLB to discourage the vote to unionize and the sheer number of players who need to sign the voting cards, this is far from a certainty. That said, this is the most significant step towards unionization of minor leaguers.
