Master Index of Archived Threads


MLBPA Bombshell

Edgy MD Aug 29 2022 09:15 PM

In a stunning reversal of decades-old policy, the Major League Baseball Players Association is suddenly taking steps to organize minor league baseball players. [TWEET]https://twitter.com/MLBPA_News/status/1564237263307001857[/TWEET] Minor League Baseball has seen upstart unions organizing in locker rooms, and the players have successfully won a class action suit for low wages, forcing a settlement. One might imagine that MLBPA's hand is getting kind of forced, as players graduating from the minors might in the future stay true to the organization that represented them when they had nothing. These wins also come in the wake of a generation of Ty Kellys — longtime minor leaguers who put their college degrees to work in advocating and exposing the shitty deal minor leaguers have gotten for far too long. With the minor leagues having undergone a drastic contraction, the MLBPA is sending membership cards to minor leaguers at a time when they have all the incentive in the world to sign. What a general agreement might look like is a tough call, as is how Minor League Baseball would have to change their business model and relationship with MLB in order to sustain a business that actually pays its employees a living wage.

Gwreck Aug 29 2022 11:15 PM Re: MLBPA Bombshell

Edgy MD wrote: how Minor League Baseball would have to change their business model and relationship with MLB in order to sustain a business that actually pays its employees a living wage. Not at all? Player salaries are paid by the major league club, not the minor league club. Paying a living wage is an easy thing for all 30 MLB teams. Especially given the recent reorganization and reduction of affiliated minor league teams.

Edgy MD Aug 30 2022 05:16 AM Re: MLBPA Bombshell

Yes, but that's the rub. MLB has demonstrated it's willingness to shut down or dissolve an affiliation, rather than pay a living wage to the employees. As members of the same union as the Major League players, the minor league players could presumably have some degree of protection against that.

Gwreck Aug 30 2022 05:36 AM Re: MLBPA Bombshell

Edgy MD wrote: Yes, but that's the rub. MLB has demonstrated it's willingness to shut down or dissolve an affiliation, rather than pay a living wage to the employees. That may well be a big factor counseling in favor of organizing now. Given that the minor leagues have just now gone through a major reorganization and consolidation, it's significantly harder to try to do so again.

Ceetar Aug 30 2022 06:36 AM Re: MLBPA Bombshell

as I understand it, they're not offering them membership so much as asking them to designate the MLBPA their collective bargaining agency. I don't know specifically what the plan is, but it doesn't sound like "equal membership" It's a good play, and hopefully they can get it done right. Owners in all industries across the country have been engaging in all sorts of union busting wage-suppressing nonsense, and I can absolutely see MLB hinting to high schoolers that won't get drafted if they talk to the union.

Edgy MD Aug 30 2022 06:47 AM Re: MLBPA Bombshell

If they are asked to sign up in the minors to only collect meaningful benefits if and when they reach the majors, that would indeed be disappointing.

Ceetar Aug 30 2022 07:03 AM Re: MLBPA Bombshell

that's exactly what's going to happen, regardless. The hope would be that once they're "signed up" in whatever form, they'd then be able to bargain for real minor league protections. But does that mean mostly status quo until the next CBA? There's a lot of legal/labor nuance here. I can't help but think MLBPA is just thinking the minor leaguers unionizing separately from them is not a good thing for them, so they're trying to take control. If I had to take a guess at how this shakes out, it's probably as all the minor leaguers represented as an internal group with their own leadership that essentially functions as one unit/vote. There was a group, "Advocates for Minor leaguers" doing some of this sort of labor work, and they've all resigned to officially take real positions with the union. Reads to me like they're going to be the umbrella under which the minor league players fall. But having that group/block and all these people as "preliminary" members or whatever it ends up being, ultimately forces the union to actually care about the issues there. Now I'd say also invite all the indie leagues in on a similar preliminary type deal. Cut off the owners from trying to steal players from the indie leagues instead of paying minor leaguers. You want a baseball player for your team? You gotta go through the union.

Ceetar Aug 30 2022 07:04 AM Re: MLBPA Bombshell

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/HannahRKeyser/status/1564239474929926145[/TWEET]

Gwreck Aug 30 2022 07:52 AM Re: MLBPA Bombshell

I am not a lawyer specializing in labor/employment law, and this is not legal advice. That said: My understanding is that if minor leaguers successfully organize as their own collective unit, they would be able to bargain for their own CBA. If they were to join the existing MLB Major League Players' collective “unit,” then they might not be able to bargain for anything until that existing CBA was going to expire (and/or, they wouldn't necessarily have the leverage needed to re-open that CBA). From a minor leaguer's perspective, the best case scenario is of course the MLBPA organizing everyone together and throwing their entire weight behind a comprehensive negotiation with MLB. That also may be a pipe dream. Collectively organizing all of the minor leaguers together is probably a second best outcome. Whether that is best done as a separate “unit” of the larger union, or as their own independent union is hard to say (eg. there will be pros/cons either way).

kcmets Aug 30 2022 08:29 AM Re: MLBPA Bombshell

=Gwreck post_id=105728 time=1661867536 user_id=56]I am not a lawyer specializing in labor/employment law

Where's Diamond Dad when we need him?