MLB Recognizes MLBPA’s Request To Represent Minor Leaguers

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced today that the league is prepared to voluntarily recognize the MLBPA as the new collective bargaining representatives for minor league players. The announcement comes less than two weeks after the MLBPA sent authorization cards to minor league players seeking to represent them, and just days after the union received “significant” majority support and formally requested that the commissioner’s office voluntarily recognize the seismic shift in player representation.

Had the league not agreed, the MLBPA would have engaged with the federal National Labor Relations Board to prompt an election among minor leaguers. Assuming a majority of those who voted approved of MLBPA representation, the NLRB could then have forced MLB’s hand in recognizing the unionization. Those extra steps won’t be necessary, following today’s announcement by Manfred. According to Evan Drellich of the Athletic (Twitter link), the recognition is pending agreement between the league and union on a card-check resolution — essentially an independent verification of the authorization cards sent last month.

An MLBPA official told MLBTR last week that that the proposed unionization efforts would give minor leaguers their own separate bargaining unit under the MLBPA umbrella, adding that any minor league CBA would be negotiated independently of the Major League CBA that was completed earlier this year. The MLBPA recently announced that it had hired all members of the advocacy group Advocates For Minor Leaguers, a move which bolstered the union’s leadership ranks in preparation for the shift, which will see MLBPA membership grow from 1200 to more than 5000.

MLB’s announcement will accelerate the process for eventually getting minor league players under the MLBPA umbrella. League recognition would serve as an implicit acknowledgement that the majority of minor leaguers would likely have voted in favor of unionization had the PA petitioned the NLRB for an election.

While the timeline for official recognition remains unclear, it now seems all but certain minor leaguers will soon become members of the MLB Players Association. It’s completely uncharted territory for minor leaguers, who have never previously been part of a union. In a full post earlier this week, Drellich spoke to a handful of minor league players about the process. Drellich noted that players in the rookie level Dominican Summer League will not…