This article is free for anyone to read, but please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber to allow me to keep writing posts like this one. Sign up to receive articles like this one in your inbox here.
Minor league baseball players might have unionized in the fall of 2022, leading to their first-ever collective bargaining agreement early the next year, but that alone isn’t enough. This was obvious at the time, as, even while MLB was at the bargaining table with the Players Association, the former was trying to support an exemption that would allow them to a CBA workaround in Florida — one that would have let them avoid adhering to the state’s minimum wage laws.
Here’s what I said at the time about that, in March of 2023:
Apparently, more yelling and shaming is required for MLB to quit sniffing around ways to get out of paying players for their work. What’s there to seek clarification for, after all, if your intention is to pay the players? MLB is seeking a loophole and hoping one will be granted to them. Maybe they are fine with paying the players, but are hoping to create a situation where, in order for the players to be paid year-round and in the spring, the PA is going to have to make concessions in bargaining to get that right in writing. Even if that’s “all” this is, it still goes against this idea that MLB is some magnanimous organization looking to ensure that things go well for their players. They’ve only given minor leaguers improved treatment over the past few years because too many folks in media and fans were becoming aware of the conditions that they toiled under, and it was making MLB look bad.
That November, a trio of United States senators sent a letter to MLB asking about this pursuit of an exemption in Florida, as it “appear[ed] to significantly undermine the [collective bargaining] agreement.” Those three senators were Richard Durbin, Richard Blumenthal, and John Hickenlooper. And here was my reaction to that letter:
These three senators have clearly understood that the league wants to rewind the clock in their most significant state for minor leaguers and minor league pay, and are hoping to use S.B. 892 to do so in some fashion, whether it’s for leverage in the next CBA, or to ensure that a significant chunk of the minor league populace is suffering, compensation-wise, when the CBA expires and MLB has decided to play hardball like they just did with the big leaguers, forcing agreement on a new CBA to come well after that expiration date. Which would, in theory at least, create a bit of a wedge that has some players more desperate for an agreement to be made than others.
Fast-forward back to the present, and Senator Durbin’s plans to introduce the Fair Ball Act. The idea behind this act — which would scale back the power of the Save America’s Pastime Act, which was shoved into a larger spending omnibus bill in the spring of 2018 — is to keep MLB from being able to capitalize on any exemptions like Florida’s S.B. 892 in the future. The rules of the collective bargaining agreement, as far as minor leaguers and their compensation are concerned, are only active when the CBA is. So, for example, if MLB decided to play hardball with the players in negotiations, putting them in a situation where they would be playing without a new CBA, they would only legally be forced to pay the players under the pre-CBA rules, per whatever exemptions or federal laws, like those set forth in the Save America’s Pastime Act, suggest for a minimum.
Now, the chances of that particular scenario are slim — MLB would lock the players out to avoid having them strike, were a CBA not in place in time for the next regular season — but what these exemptions could still be used for is leverage in future CBA talks. MLB will give up their support of this exemption if the players give up X, or agree to Y, and so on — making it so that the new law is that these exemptions or regulations only apply if they’ve been collectively bargained removes that possibility. And MLB losing leverage — especially some made-up bullshit leverage that’s simply being utilized as a threat — is a positive.
Durbin, in a statement, made his intentions known:
Executives at MLB lobbied Congress hard for federal wage and hour law exemptions in order to avoid legal liability with the 2018 Save America’s Pastime Act. While I commend MLB for voluntarily recognizing the unionization of Minor League Baseball players in 2022, it is time to roll back SAPA in deference to the gains made by that historic unionization. I’m proud to stand with these workers, unions, and the integrity of the sport. I stand ready to pass the Fair Ball Act into law.
And the Players Association, by way of executive director Tony Clark, came out and praised the Fair Ball Act’s intent, stating that, “This is a win for Minor Leaguers, for baseball, and indeed for workers and collective bargaining as a whole.” Considering the recent attacks on the National Labor Relations Board by oligarchs Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, who are tired of getting in trouble for their worker exploitation and despise the existence of a regulatory body to call them out on it — and the re-ascension of Donald Trump to the White House — it’s vital to improve legislation that protects workers like this while it can be passed. And make no mistake, these minor leaguers are workers. You can tell, because of how often their bosses attempt to exploit their labor.
Visit my Patreon to become a supporter and help me continue to write articles like this one.